“AGE CANNOT WITHER…” SHAKESPEARE 400

Films

Much Ado About Nothing (UK/USA)

(111 min; 1993; dvd; English)

Director: Kenneth Branagh

With Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Keanu Reeves

Multiple award winner including Best Actress Award, Evening Standard British Film Awards 1994; Guild Film Awards – Silver for Foreign Film, Guild of German Art House Cinema 1994; ALFS Award for British Producer of the Year, London Critics Circle Film Awards 1994; NBR Award for Top Ten Films, National Board of Review, USA 1993; among others

Sunshine and laughter, and merrymakers on a hillside sprinkled with flowers. In the opening scene of Much Ado About Nothing, Kenneth Branagh insists on the tone the movie will take: These are healthy, joyful young people whose high spirits will survive anything, even the dark double-crosses of Shakespeare's plot

At 14:00

Richard III (USA/UK)

(104 min; 1995; dvd; English)

Director: Richard Loncraine

With Ian Mckellan, Annette Bening, Jim Broadbent

Multiple award winner including Bafta Film Award for Best Production Design and Best Costume Design, Bafta Awards 1997; Silver Berlin Bear for Best Director, Berlin International Film Festival 1996; European Film Award for European Actor of the Year, European Film Awards 1996; among others

Was ever there a villain such as Richard the Third? Murderer of his brother Henry VI; of Prince Edward; later of Edward's wife Anne; of his own brother Clarence; of Anne's brother Rivers; of his henchmen Grey and Vaughn; of Lord Hastings; his own two young nephews; of Lady Anne; and finally his long-loyal retainer Buckingham. All had to make way for Richard's overwhelming ambition to rise to the throne. All died in vain, as Richard was unmounted in battle and uttered the famous cry: "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!"

 

(Courtesy British Council Division)

 

At 17:00

The Abiding Appeal of Shakespeare: Some Considerations beyond the Pragmatic

Speaker: Professor Shirshendu Chakrabarti, Department of English, University of Delhi

Chair: Professor R.W. Desai

 

Exhibition: Archival Photographs from Shakespearean adaptations produced by National School of Drama

 

READINGS /CONCERT  C D DESHMUKH AUDITORIUM AT 18:30

Sonnets: Recitation and Song

Recitations: Sunit Tandon; Sabina Mehta Jaitly; Shormistha Panja; and Anhad  Anand

Songs: Justin McCarthy (harpsichord) and Sunanda Rao Erdem and others (vocal)

 

Coordinator: Bhaskar Ghose