The Cambridge Shakespeare Festival is a festival of the plays of

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

held annually in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The festival was founded in 1987 by Artistic Director Dr David Crilly. The productions are performed in full period costume with live

Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personifi ...

music. The festival attracts upwards of 25,000 visitorsAbout Cambridge Shakespeare Festival
for the productions which take place over a period of eight weeks in July and August. Each performance is held outside in the private gardens of colleges of the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, including King's College Gardens,

Robinson College Robinson College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1977, it is one of the newest Oxbridge colleges and is unique in having been intended, from its inception, for both undergraduate and graduate students of bo ...

Gardens,

Girton College Girton College is one of the Colleges of the University of Cambridge, 31 constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college in Cambridge. In 1 ...

Gardens, St John's College Gardens,

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

Gardens and

Downing College Downing College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge and currently has around 650 students. Founded in 1800, it was the only college to be added to Cambridge University between 1596 and 1869, and is often described as the olde ...

Gardens. The ethos of the Company is to provide access to all to Shakespeare's work without any prior knowledge of the play or author, and the Artistic Director has made it a Company policy to avoid unnecessary theatrical artifice and special effects. To that end the plays are performed without staging or elaborate lighting and the action takes place in and around the space in which the audience sits. The centrepiece of any production is, therefore, the language - thus returning to Shakespeare's original mode of communication with his audience. In 2009 The Independent on Sunday listed the Festival fourth in its 'Top 50 UK Arts Festival' and 2015 saw the publication of a book on the history, style and development of the Festival, entitled Shakespeare in Cambridge: a celebration of the Shakespeare Festival, by Andrew Muir.

References

Muir, Andrew (2015), 'Shakespeare in Cambridge: A Celebration of the Shakespeare Festival'. Amberley Publishing.

External links

Cambridge Shakespeare Festival website
Festivals in Cambridge Shakespeare festivals in the United Kingdom Shakespeare Festival Shakespeare Festival Recurring events established in 1987 July events August events Theatre festivals in England {{Theat-festival-stub