World’s voices put the Bard centre stage

World’s voices put the Bard centre stage in BBC’s Living Shakespeare series

The way Shakespeare resonates in the lives of five luminaries from around the globe is the subject of the Living Shakespeare series going live onMonday 5 September across BBC World Service’s multilingual output, on BBC World News television and the websitebbc.com.

BBC World Service has produced the series as part of the project marking 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, in partnership with the British Council, the UK's international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations, and The Open University, the UK's foremost distance learning academic institution. Living Shakespeare brings testimonies from exceptional cultural, social and political figures who share their personal experience with the Bard’s creations.

“The involvement of such notable participants shows the huge impact Shakespeare continues to have on the lives of people globally, even centuries after his death,” said Ingrid Leary, Director British Council NZ, which has supported a series of events in NZ over this year which celebrate the life of the bard.

The BBC series producer, Jonathan Wells said:

“It doesn’t matter in what language or what country, William Shakespeare is still as relevant today as he was 400 years ago. As our five international luminaries illustrate in the series, it is always possible to tie the issues of the modern world to Shakespeare’s works. Britain’s greatest writer is still very much alive and living in 2016!”

In the three-minute films produced by the BBC World Service and to be broadcast across the BBC’s international news services:

• South African actor Dr John Kani recounts his experiences playing Othello in 1987, at the height of Apartheid. He takes stock on how far the country has come and contemplates the continued relevance of the play in its still divided society

• Chinese author Hong Ying looks at Shakespeare’s sonnets as they relate to sexuality and love in China. Banned during the Cultural Revolution, Shakespeare later became a cultural touchstone for Hong Ying and other artists in the 1980s. The sonnets are taking on a new resonance among the gay community of China today

• Bollywood actor Kalki Koechlin explores the character of Ophelia and relates her situation to the complex and often confusing role of women in Indian society

• Scottish musician Dame Evelyn Glennie talks about her unique way of hearing and interpreting “The Tempest”. Profoundly deaf, she hears the sounds in the words of the characters, perceiving them with her whole body to explore the “sound colours” in the text

• Choreographer Alissar Caracalla tells the story of her company’s famous “Oriental Night” – a production based on “Midsummer Night’s Dream”, devised and performed in the Chouf Mountain during the closing months of the Lebanese Civil War.

The Living Shakespeare series will go live on bbc.com/livingshakespeare on5 September. BBC World News television will broadcast one episode a week from that date, at 05.55, 10.55, 12.55, 15.50 and 18.55 GMT. The films are made in Arabic, Chinese, Hindi and English – and are translated for use across BBC World Service’s multiple language outputs.

Living Shakespeare is a collection of essays commissioned by the British Council as part of the Shakespeare Lives project which celebrates William Shakespeare’s influence on culture, language, education and society. As well as the contributors featured by the BBC World Service, the British Council has also published essays by US Secretary of State John Kerry, Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka and renowned Algerian novelist Ahlem Mosteghanemi. The complete essays can be read on the Shakespeare Lives website. The Open University is a co-funder of the project, and provided academic consultation and expertise throughout the process.

Details of local BBC World broadcasts are below:

NEW ZEALAND

Local Stations

In Auckland, the BBC World service is transmitted 24 hours a day on 810 AM (from Friday 1 April), in Matakohe on 107.3 FM, and in Coromandel Pacific Coast on 107 FM.

Radio New Zealand's National Radiobroadcasts BBC feature programmes in the evenings and at weekends. Schedules and frequencies can be found on the website

New Zealand Community Radio broadcasts individual BBC programmes (*) or continuously overnight (**) on the following frequencies:
Bream Bay (Jukebox Radio) 99.1 FM**
Canterbury Plains (Plains FM) 96.9 FM**
Dunedin (Hills AM) 1575 AM*
Hamilton (Radio Hamilton) 1206 AM*
Kapiti Coast (Beach FM) 93.5 FM**
Nelson (Fresh FM) 88.4, 95.4 & 99.4*
Manawatu & Horowhenua (Access Triplenine AM) 999 AM**

PACIFIC ISLANDS

Local stations

BBC World Service is transmitted 24 hours a day on the following frequencies:
Fiji – Suva & Nadi: 88.2 FM
Kiribati – Bairiki: 95 FM, Tarawa: 100 FM
Micronesia - Pohnpei: 101.1 FM
Papua New Guinea – Port Moresby: 107.6 FM
Solomon Islands – Honiaria: 105.6 FM
Vanuatu – Port Vila & Liganville: 99 FM

A selection of BBC WS programmes are also broadcast at regular times in:
Solomon Islands – Honiaria: 1035 AM (Radio Happy Isles)
Tonga – Nuku'alofa: 90 FM & 1017 AM (Radio Tonga)
Tuvalu – Funafuti: 101 FM & 6215 AM (Radio Tuvalu)

Ends

Notes to editors:

BBC World Service delivers news content around the world, on radio, TV and digital, reaching a weekly audience of 246 million. As part of BBC World Service, BBC Learning English teaches English to global audiences. The BBC World Service Group operates around the world in 30 languages, on radio, TV and digital.

BBC World News and BBC.com, the BBC’s commercially funded international 24-hour English news platforms, are owned and operated by BBC Global News Ltd. BBC World News television is available in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide, and over 433 million households and 1.8 million hotel rooms. The channel’s content is also available on 178 cruise ships, 53 airlines and 23 mobile phone networks. BBC.com offers up-to-the- minute international news and in-depth analysis for PCs, tablets and mobile devices to more than 85 million unique browsers each month.

The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. It creates international opportunities for the people of the UK and other countries and build trust between them worldwide. Working in more than 100 countries, 8,000 staff – including 2,000 teachers – work with thousands of professionals and policy makers and millions of young people every year by teaching English, sharing the arts and delivering education and society programmes. The British Council is a UK charity governed by Royal Charter. A core publicly-funded grant provides 16 per cent of total turnover which last year was £973 million. The rest of the revenues are earned from services which customers around the world pay for, such as English classes and taking UK examinations, and also through education and development contracts and from partnerships with public and private organisations. All the organisation’s work is in pursuit of our charitable purpose and supports prosperity and security for the UK and globally. For more information visit: britishcouncil.org. Keep in touch with the British Council through twitter.com/britishcouncil and blog.britishcouncil.org.

The Open University (OU) is the largest academic institution in the UK and a world leader in flexible distance learning and in developing technology to increase access to education on a global scale. Over its 42-year partnership with the BBC, the OU has moved from late-night lectures to co-producing prime-time series. For more information, go to open.ac.uk.

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