The London Traveler

Take a tour of Southwark today to celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday.
Southwark was never part of the City of London. It was run by the Bishop of Winchester – and successive bishops seem to have decided to create an anarchic free-enterprise zone opposite the tightly regulated City. This paid them dividends – pleasure houses, theatres, bath houses (meaning roughly the same thing in Elizabethan London as in today’s San Francisco), bear baiting rings, and hundreds of taverns all paid rent to the enterprising bishops.
I must admit to a vested interest here – I’ve been researching Shakespeare’s Southwark for my own company, Podtours, …read more

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You’ve heard of Supermarket Sweep – but have you heard of Supermarket Shakespeare?
Teatro Vivo will be performing in Sainsbury’s, Lee Green, from the 19th to 23rd of April. Performances are at 12 and 6 on Saturday, 12 and 3 on Sunday, and 7 pm on Monday to Wednesday. And they are free. (I’d like to see anyone charge Londoners for going to a supermarket!)
Insane! and, of course, great fun.

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Shakespeare’s birthday  – fittingly for England’s greatest dramatist – falls on St George’s Day, 23rd April.
You can help wish Will Shakespeare a happy birthday at the Globe this weekend. On Saturday, you can take a ‘Sonnet Walk’ – touring London accompanied by sonnetteers who will recite Shakespeare’s sonnets along the way. Tickets are £16 from the Globe Theatre.
And on Sunday, the Globe is open with theatre workshops, a chance for visitors to tread the sacred boards, and performances by the Footsbarn Theatre Company  who will be asking “Were all the gravediggers called Derek?” That’s all completely free.
(I didn’t get the …read more

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