A 400-year old spirit has been making its presence known. This voice from a long-gone past isn’t a Halloween haunt, though. It’s just never gone away.
Still, the spirit of William Shakespeare, who died in 1616, seems to be having an especially good time right now: In Washington DC over the summer, the Folger Shakespeare Library reopened – and a new Shakespeare museum will open in London in 2025. Radiohead’s Thom Yorke announced a British stage mashup of Hamlet and his band’s 2003 album, Hail To The Thief, and Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal will do Othello on Broadway. Oscar winner Chloe Zhao is directing the screen version of Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell’s moving 2020 novel about the death of Shakespeare’s son, which is scheduled to be out next year.So is this an especially fruitful time for Shakespearean antics? We reached out to the Folger Shakespeare Library for insight.
