I occasionally wonder whether Shakespeare was the first writer to have enjoyed the services of a PR. At the time, that is; the subsequent foundation of the RSC, amidst much related Bardolatry, has seen to it that Big Bill remains top literary dog in the English language…

23rd April marked Shakespeare’s 449th birthday, and this anniversary seemed a good opportunity to revisit Stratford, where I hadn’t been since the grand reopening of the RSC’s main theatre in 2011, and saw a very fine staging of Merchant of Venice. This time, we were back for a new production [...]

“Picture the following scene. I’m standing in the top room of a Dublin pub, late on a Thursday night. Nothing that unusual about that, but there’s a coffin in front of me.”

“Rowan Atkinson’s return to drama on the West End stage for the first time since the 1980s was keenly anticipated, though many might have wondered why he chose the role of St John Quartermaine in Simon Gray’s drama.”

“What good things spring to mind when you think of Southampton? The Titanic, up to a point. Some fine medieval buildings. And, perhaps, the Spitfire, which was first designed here.”

The playwright Arthur Wing Pinero (and, yes, Wing really was his middle name, as opposed to a more than usually unfortunate nom de plume) has had something of a chequered career since his Victorian heyday. His comedies and tragic dramas, immensely popular in their day, have somewhat fallen into neglect, [...]

The English coast might not be the ideal destination for a weekend in November but it does have the odd draw, particularly if you’re inclined to step back into another age. Alex Larman goes Edwardian in Eastbourne…