The Shakespeare Project

On 26 March 2025, we welcomed students in Years 12-13 to our campus for a day packed with activities. The event featured interactive workshops, taster sessions, and hands-on demonstrations, delivered by our departments in Literature, Film and Theatre Studies.

Students explored a variety of subjects, engaging with our academics and experiencing university-style learning first-hand. See the timetable below to get a sense of how the event ran, as we’ll be running a similar programme in 2026 and look forward to welcoming students back onto campus for even more dynamic activities. 

2025 Event Programme:

Session information:

• Shakespeare's tragedies: This lecture explores how Shakespeare reshaped tragedy, moving beyond Aristotle’s classical model. By examining language, character, and plot, students will learn to develop their own interpretations of Shakespearean tragedy and its relevance to 21st-century dilemmas and themes.
• Shakespeare across media: Based on the content of one of our most popular first-year interdisciplinary modules, Shakespeare Across Media, this session will take a comparative approach to examine how Hamlet has inspired the making of Chinese award-winning film director Feng Xiaogang's 2006 The Banquet.
• Performing Shakespeare: This session explores how Shakespeare’s plays have been performed over time and how modern actors and directors bring them to life. Through hands-on engagement at the Lakeside Theatre, participants will examine the challenges and possibilities of staging Shakespeare today.
• Spring Production: In this session, students will experience a live snippet from the Theatre Arts Society’s 2025 spring production, a modern twist on Romeo & Juliet. They’ll also hear from the writer about the creative process behind Romeo and Jules – A Rock Opera.

Please do get in touch with us if you have any questions about the event in the meantime, we'd love to hear from you.