Presented in collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the British Museum’s “Shakespeare staging the world” revisits the playwrite’s stories and tell them anew to London in 2012.
The Elizabethan theatre dominated society. Spanning the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras, Shakespeare used the theatre as a medium to showcase his understanding of history and contemporary cultures from across the world. The exhibit presents the argument that Shakespeare’s influence was palpable in his own time and his tales echo down through the ages. The exhibition will provide a unique insight into the emerging role of London as a world city, and so should be of particular interest to those attending the Early Modern Exchanges launch conference next week.
Maps, prints, drawings, paintings and tapestries will sit alongside arms and armour, books, coins, medals and much more, highlighting the cross-cultural exchange of the Renaissance and Shakespeare’s role in this exchange. The exhibit reveals how one man’s work has such a universal appeal. 
Part of the World Shakespeare Festival which is part of London 2012 Festival, the exhibit runs through the 25th of November and is free to members of the museum. The British Museum is located just around the corner from UCL at Great Russell Street. More information on the exhibit can be found at http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/shakespeare.aspx
Early Modern Exchanges 