Beaumont 400

Guildhall Library, 11 March (evening) and King's College London, 12 March (day and evening)

In 1616, a leading dramatist and poet died and was roundly mourned by all of his contemporaries. His name? Francis Beaumont. The author of The Knight of the Burning Pestle and co-author of Philaster and The Maid’s Tragedy, died on 6 March 1616 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Following Adele Thomas's triumphant revival of The Knight at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare's Globe, it is time to reassess Beaumont's contributions to Jacobean drama and poetry, and his relationship with his long-time collaborator John Fletcher. 

With this conference we will take over the London Shakespeare Centre and restore Beaumont to the critical limelight with a symposium and a performance of his first play, The Woman Hater, by Edward’s Boys. Speakers include Suzanne Gossett, Lois Potter, Tracey Hill, Sarah Dustagheer, Kate Graham, Eoin Price, Simon Smith and Jackie Watson.

See Beaumont 400 for further details and booking. 

 For any enquiries, please email shakespeare@kcl.ac.uk.

The London Shakespeare Centre is proud to present Wesward Ho!

by Thomas Dekker and John Webster, adapted by Perry Mills, and performed by 'Edward's Boys', King Edward VI School, Shakespeare's School.

Date: 10/03/12  Time: 19.30  Venue: Great Hall, Strand Campus, King's College London.

‘Edward’s Boys’ are heading “up West” – “Westward Ho!” was the regular cry of the Thames water taxi-men heading in a westerly direction. This year they are undertaking another Jacobean City Comedy. Westward Ho! is a play in which certain scenes really make sense (if at all) when performed by an all-boy company. It is only then that the audience is fully aware of the ironies and resonances implicit in the text.

In the course of the action certain characters employ this form of water transport in order to head out to Brentford (“Brainford” in the original). At the turn of the seventeenth century Brentford had the reputation of, perhaps, Brighton in the 1950s – somewhere men and women slipped off to get up to no good! Their short tour brings them to King’s College London under the sponsorship of the London Shakespeare Centre.

Tickets: £10 (£5.00 for registered King's students)

For tickets please telephone Sarah Jervis on 01789 293351 or email smj@kes.net

http://www.shakespeare.kcl.ac.uk/event.html?event=75