In Part Two of his series, Professor Gabriel Egan considers how the sense of words and phrases shifts across time and cultures, and how we can still have a meanigful conversation with Shakespeare. Do we really understand Shakespeare the way his contemporaries did? There are plenty of opportunities for the…

This month marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death. Professor Gabriel Egan, in the first of a series of articles, discusses how his dramas imagine and enact different political choices. William Shakespeare died 400 years ago, at the age of 52. In those 52 years he wrote poems and plays that…

This article, covering the history, politics and practice of Britain's foremost poitical theatre company, is a collective work-in-progress by members of the company. Banner Theatre is a socialist theatre company based in Birmingham. Formed in 1973, from a disparate collection of folk singers, drama teachers, office workers, broadcasters, technicians and…

Graham Caveney reviews a life-enhancing drama about death, Donne and dignity, and which critiques the medical-political marginalisation of cancer patients.  Dr Vivian Bearing, the lead character of this remarkable play, is dying. She tells us this within the first few minutes of appearing on stage, dressed in her hospital gown…