Amit and Ping’s enthusiasm was infectious and impossible to resist.  Talking to them reminded me how extraordinary it is we can talk about Shakespeare and his influence across the world in the actual house where he grew up.

Yuchen was in conversation with one of our Shakespeare Aloud actresses upstairs at the Birthplace when I asked him to name his favourite Shakespeare play.  Without hesitation he told us it was the complexity of Hamlet and the many ways in which the character could be interpreted that continued to fascinate him.  For the blog [...]

Lee Xiao Ke & Juan Juan have come to visit Shakespeare’s birthplace because of Shakespeare’s fame in China and their desire to see the house he was born in

I met these visitors from China in the Exhibition Room upstairs in the Birthplace. If you look to the left of the screen you can see Shakespeare taking an interest in their conversation!

The Shakespeare Aloud actors were out in the Birthplace garden as these lovely girls from China stopped to ask for a photograph with me – I’m in my Tudor costume.  It was great to meet them and In return I asked them to talk to me about Shakespeare.

Like many visitors, Zhang, Wang and Qiao from China had come to the Birthplace to have a ‘personal experience’ with William Shakespeare and his world.  As students and teachers they had studied his plays and this was a chance to walk through the very rooms where the family who would shape his approach to life [...]

The sun had just come out as Ci Ci from China stopped to talk to me outside Shakespeare’s childhood home.  She is standing in front of one of the beautiful rose trees that makes the garden such an important part of being here.  It was the perfect place for Ci Ci to talk about her [...]

Weixin Lei and her father Jin talked in the garden about their love of Shakespeare and the way in which his plays and characters are appreciated in China.  Jin’s life affirming enthusiasm was infectious and it was a pleasure to talk to them.