Shakespeare...

Today is St. George's Day in the UK. We still don't make a big deal of it like the Irish do with St Patrick's Day which is a shame I think. Coincidentally, it's also the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's death. He was the hot ticket in town in ElizabethI's London and, because of the quality of his work and beauty of his language, he is still packing them in 400 years later. His plays have inspired operas, ballets, movies and West End musicals. Theatres around the world are mounting productions to mark the day. President Obama is going to see a production at the Globe Theatre in London while he's over for a few days. I doubt Shakespeare would have thought that he would be so popular and have so many productions of his plays still on the stage 400 years later.

My favourite production has to be that of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream.' It was an open air production in a Redwood grove on the campus of the University of California in Santa Cruz. We took a champagne picnic, the air was scented with pine and we could see the Pacific Ocean in the distance and fairies flew across the grove from tree to tree. It was a magical experience.

Here's the beautiful Shakespeare stained glass window from the foyer of Manchester's Central Library. The Bard of Avon himself is in the centre surrounded by some of the many characters from his plays.