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Shakespeare at the Hay Festival

Hay Festival is underway and the world's writers, thinkers and opinion-formers are descending on the little Welsh town. This year's Hay Festival is celebrating the global impact of Shakespeare in the 400th anniversary year of his death with a programme of talks, workshops and projects. Shakespeare Lives will offer daily highlights from some of the festival's events.

  • The author of 1599 offers an intimate portrait of one of Shakespeare鈥檚 most inspired moments: the year of King Lear, Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra

  • Watch live as the former Doctor Who show-runner talks about his passion project, the 大象传媒 film of Shakespeare鈥檚 A Midsummer Night's Dream, with one of its stars, Maxine Peake

  • Two of the greatest modern Hamlets talk about the role. Maxine Peake played Hamlet in Sarah Frankcom鈥檚 production and Paapa Essiedu is playing Hamlet now at the RSC. They talk to the author of This Orient Isle, Jerry Brotton, who is the Shakespeare adviser to the Hay Festival

  • The novelists celebrate the 400th anniversaries of Cervantes and Shakespeare and the stories that they have written around them

  • As part of Hay Festival鈥檚 big Shakespeare 400 Celebrations, the writer and lecturer discusses the playwright鈥檚 poetry

  • The British poets respond with their own poems to their choice of Shakespeare鈥檚 14-line poems. They introduce and read the original sonnets and their own newly commissioned work

  • Why are we celebrating the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare鈥檚 death? Who and what are we celebrating? How did Shakespeare get from there (the Elizabethan and Jacobean stage) to here (the global icon) and where will he go in the next hundred years?

  • The author pays tribute to Shakespeare鈥檚 400th anniversary with her new novel inspired by Othello. Her tale blends a love story with a sci-fi twist in an original space-age adventure

  • The Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company discusses Shakespeare鈥檚 legacy in 2016, the 400th anniversary of his death

  • The novelist and essayist celebrates the work and gift of the playwright. Her latest novel The Gap of Time is a retelling of The Winter鈥檚 Tale

  • The historian examines Shakespeare鈥檚 making of the myths of England. He hymns the Histories, the kings and the commoners, the band of brothers, and the spirit of Shakespeare鈥檚 greatest knight, Sir John Falstaff.