‘Shakespeare at Yale’ this week: April 2–8

CLOWN:

.
.. [W]hat am I to 
buy for our sheep-shearing feast? “Three pound of sugar; five
 pound of currants; rice” — what will this sister of mine do with
 rice? … I must have saffron to colour
 the warden pies; “mace — dates,” — none, that’s out of my note; 
”nutmegs, seven; a race or two of ginger,” — but that I may beg; 
”four pound of prunes, and as many of raisins o’ the sun.”

— “The Winter’s Tale,” Act IV, Scene 3

A Yale School of Drama production of Shakespeare’s early work “Titus Andronicus,” a poetry slam featuring British “spoken-word artist” Kate Tempest, a workshop on making pastry à la Bard. and a screening of Orson Welles’ classic “Chimes at Midnight” are the main new attractions of the “Shakespeare at Yale” celebration this week.

Performances

“Titus Andronicus”

Yale School of Drama students pool their ingenuity and imagination for this Studio Series production of arguably Shakespeare’s bloodiest play. There will be five performances of this production at the Iseman Theater, 1156 Chapel St.: Thursday, April 5, 4 p.m.; Friday, April 6, 4 and 8 p.m.; and Saturday, April 7, 4 p.m. The play is free and open to the public, but reservations are required.

For more information and reservations, click here.

“Slamlet”

Teeth, Yale’s slam poetry group, will present “Slamlet,” a performance of original pieces written in response to Shakespeare’s poems and plays, on Saturday, April 7. “Slamlet” will also include a performance by British rapper Kate Tempest (see other Tempest event below), whose recent projects include an initiative of the Royal Shakespeare Company to combine Shakespeare’s work with modern wordplay. “Through this event, Teeth aims to demonstrate the accessibility of Shakespeare’s work and possible ways of engaging personally with it,” say the organizers. Free and open to the public, the event takes place at the Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall St., at 7:30 p.m.

For more information, click here.

“The Winter’s Tale”

Rarely performed and considered one of Shakespeare’s hard-to-classify works, “The Winter’s Tale” begins in tragedy yet has a fairy-tale ending. Directed by Obie Award-winning resident director Liz Diamond, “The Winter’s Tale” will be playing through April 17 at the University Theatre, 222 York St. Tickets range from $20 to $88 and are available online, by phone at 203-432-1234, and in person at the Yale Rep box office, 1120 Chapel St. at York Street. Student, senior, and group rates are also available.

Click here for more information.

“Telling Rhymes” workshop with Kate Tempest

On April 7, prior to her appearance at the Teeth poetry slam “Slamlet” (see above), “spoken word artist” Kate Tempest will host “Telling Rhymes,” a workshop on the intersection of poetry and music, in Linsly-Chittenden Hall, Rm. 209, 63 High St., 2–4 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

For more information, click here. 

“Baking with the Bard: Honey-Glazed Fig Pastry”

Even the Yale Sustainable Food Project is contributing to the “Shakespeare at Yale” celebration: a workshop in which participants will make honey-glazed fig pastries from an Elizabethan recipe. While they’re learning to make the sort of pie the Bard might have eaten, participants will also learn about fig cultivation on the Yale Farm and about how the ancient fruit has often been evoked in literature. The workshop will be open only to members of the Yale community, and will take place in the kitchen of Davenport College, 248 York St., on Wednesday, April 4, at 2 p.m. Participants must register in advance by sending an e-mail to Zan Romanoff at zan.romanoff@yale.edu.

For more information, click here.

“Chimes at Midnight”

On Thursday, April 5, the Whitney Humanities Center will screen “Chimes at Midnight,” Orson Welles’s 1965 cinematic homage to Falstaff, the comic character who appears in three of Shakespeare’s plays: “Henry IV,” parts 1 and 2, and “The Merry Wives of Windsor.” Welles plays Falstaff and directs; the cast includes John Gielgud, Jeanne Moreau, Margaret Rutherford, and Ralph Richardson. Professor Dudley Andrew, who teaches film studies at Yale and chairs the Department of Comparative Literature, will offer introductory remarks and lead a post-screening discussion of the film that Welles considered one of his best. The screening, which is free and open to the public, begins at 7 p.m.

For more information, click here.

Ongoing exhibitions

 “‘The God of Our Idolatry’: Garrick and Shakespeare”

The Lewis Walpole Library exhibition, on view through July, showcases the contribution made by the actor David Garrick, who has been called the 18th-century’s greatest man of the theater, to the understanding of Shakespeare in the 1700s. The exhibition illustrates how, on stage and off, Garrick influenced the public’s view of Shakespeare, inspiring what Bernard Shaw later called “bardolatry.”

The Lewis Walpole Library is located at 154 Main Street in Farmington, CT. There is no admission charge, but the exhibition is open to the public only on Wednesday afternoons, 2-4:30 p.m. (without a prior appointment). To make an appointment to visit the exhibition on other weekdays, call 860-677-2140.

For more information and to get directions, visit the Lewis Walpole Library website.

Edwin Austin Abbey: “Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and the Lady Anne”

This exhibition centers around a work by Edwin Austin Abbey (1852–1911), an American artist known for his illustrations of the works of William Shakespeare. This exhibition shines the spotlight on Abbey’s painting “Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and the Lady Anne” (1896), which depicting the scene from Shakespeare’s “Richard III” in which the murderous duke proposes to the woman he has made a widow. Three preliminary sketches of the work are also on display.

The exhibition runs through June 10. The Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel St., is open to the public free of charge Tuesday–Saturday: 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Thursday, until 8 p.m., and Sunday: 1–6 p.m.

“Shakespeare & the Law”

This interactive, multimedia exhibit opening at the Yale Law School offers a legal perspective on the enormous body of knowledge Shakespeare had at his command. It features the Law Library’s collections of books and recent student publications exploring the Bard through the prism of the law; quotations from his works about the law; a QR code directing smart-phone users to a suggested reading list; and sound recordings of a number of Shakespeare’s most law-related plays, available at a listening station in the third-floor reading room of the Law School, 127 Wall St. The exhibition is open to the public, free of charge, 9 a.m.–10 p.m. daily. “Shakespeare & the Law” will run until Aug. 15.

For more information, click here.

“Yale’s Shakespeareans”

Shakespeare has been a focus of study and performance at Yale since its emergence as a secular institution. This exhibition at Sterling Memorial Library draws on university records, personal papers, and collected materials found in the Manuscripts & Archives division to highlight how the works of Shakespeare have been brought to life in the classroom and on the many stages of Yale. Free and open to the public, “Yale’s Shakespeareans” will be on view through May 18 at the Memorabilia Room of Sterling Memorial Library, 120 High St.

For more information, click here.

“Remembering Shakespeare”

This exhibition at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library brings together works from Yale’s diverse holdings from the Elizabethan Club, Irving S. Gilmore Music Library, Yale Center for British Art, Lewis Walpole Library in Farmington, Connecticut, and the Beinecke itself. “Remembering Shakespeare” offers a unique visual history of how the “Booke” of Shakespeare was made and read, written and remembered, from his lifetime through the present. The exhibition will be on view through June 4. The Beinecke Library, 121 Wall St., is open to the public free of charge Monday–Thursday, 9 a.m.–7 p.m.; Friday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m.; and Saturday: noon–5 p.m.

For more information, click here.

“Making History: Antiquaries in Britain”

This exhibition celebrating the achievement of the Society of Antiquaries of London, the oldest independent learned society concerned with the study of the past, will be on view through May 27 at the Yale Center for British Art, 1080 Chapel St. A portion of “Making History: Antiquaries in Britain” will complement “Shakespeare at Yale” by featuring portraits of rulers such as Henry VI, Richard III, Elizabeth I, and Henry V.

To read about the exhibition, click here.

“Shakespeare at Yale Rep”

The show features posters and photographs documenting 46 years of Shakespeare at the Yale Repertory Theatre. The exhibition is on view Monday and Wednesday, 3–5 p.m. through June 29, at the Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall St.

For more information, click here.

“‘While these visions did appear’: Shakespeare on Canvas”

Drawn from the permanent collections of the Yale Center for British Art, the paintings on display reflect how artists working in Britain in the 18th and 19th century envisioned the scenes and characters of Shakespeare’s plays. The exhibition is on view through June 3.

The Yale Center for British Art, 1080 Chapel St., is open to the public free of charge Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m., and Sunday, noon–5 p.m.

For more information, click here.