12 venues to recite full works of Shakespeare for 450th birthday
The ambitious event, organised by the Cork Shakespearean Company, is also a celebration of the amateur company’s 90 years in the city. Over a 12-hour period in 12 different venues, with nine readers per venue, Shakespeare’s 38 plays, 154 sonnets and four narrative poems, will be given rehearsed readings in Cork City Library, Cork Opera House, Cork Unitarian Church, the Firkin Crane and Eason’s Hill Community Centre where the Cork Shakespearean Company (also known as The Loft) is based.
Chairperson of the company, Kieran O’Leary, says that co-ordinating the event is a logistical challenge. “It’s been just me and my laptop for the past year and a half. I’m delegating people in the various venues to look after the groups that will be reading in them. The Globe in London actually performed the full works of Shakespeare some years ago. It took them a year to put on full productions.”
