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Shakespeare, slowly #SlowShakespeare (currently: #MoonMad); editing (2GV for Arden, ongoing), introducing (R&J, Cambridge, 2023), writing (Textile Shakespeare, Oxford, 2025) & Very Short Intro to the Histories (currently). Teaching in Cambridge (Catz) 🇳🇿

Hester L-J

The puppet Venus & Adonis (first saw it 2004) is still the most heavenly thing 💕One more performance in Cambridge tonight, Oxford next week. GO! an hour of love, lust, horses, a terrifying boar, an adorable hare, & Shakespeare's great poem read by the inimitable Simon Russell Beale, dir. Greg Doran.

Hippolyta: I like big noisy hunting dogs! #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... A moment later: Theseus (Nicholas Jones) and Hippolyta (Josette Simon) notice the sleeping lovers @the-rsc.bsky.social 1999, dir. Michael Boyd des. Tom Piper. A modern hunt, with shotguns, although no dogs alas.

The Athenian hunt! #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Two versions: Theseus (David Strathairn) & Hippolyta (Sophie Marceau), dir. Michael Hoffman 1999; Hippolita (Archana Ramaswamy) & Theseus (PR Jijoy) & Philostrate (blowing the horn; Ajay Kumar) RSC/DASH Arts 2006 dir. Tim Supple

Last night last night, so no GO, but MASS @donmarwarehouse.bsky.social featured some of the most nuanced, moving, PAINStaking acting I've ever seen from Adeel Akhtar, Paul Hilton, Lyndsey Marshal & the GREAT Monica Dolan. Legends all. Also Susie Trayling et al on Anna Yates's glowing set.

Oberon: time to go! Titania: you'll explain everything? #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Fairies reunited: Oberon (Andrew Richardson) & Titania (Sirine Saba) @the-rsc.bsky.social 2024; Jack Laskey & Marianne Oldham Globe 2023; Marjorie Bland & Patrick Stewart RSC 1977

Oberon: wakey-wakey! Titania: WEIRDEST dreams, babe #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Titania (Gwendoline Christie) wakes Oberon (Oliver Chris) Dream 2019 @bridgetheatre.bsky.social (roles reversed). And the music played: 'I can see clearly now...' Bottom (Hammed Animashaun) slumbers on

Oberon: LET'S DANCE #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... A gorgeous moment in the @bridgetheatre.bsky.social Dream 2019/2025: Oberon (Oliver Chris, loveliest grin; JJ Feild 2025) & Titania (Gwendoline Christie; Susannah Fielding 2025) ROCKED THE GROUND & the audience circled hand in hand.

Theseus: what's been going on there then?? #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Dishevelled lovers awaking in the 2019 @bridgetheatre.bsky.social Dream: Demetrius (Paul Adeyefa) centre stage, with Lysander (Kit Young), Hermia (Isis Hainsworth) & Helena (Tessa Bonham Jones) behind.

Theseus: my dogs are the most musical, the most wobblesome...🐕❤️ #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Theseus, Hippolyta, Egeus & the lovers, all crammed together to make the shot in the 1909 silent film of Dream by Vitagraph. Still no dogs alas, even though they filmed in an actual park🐕

22h

Hester L-J

Les Liaisons Dangereuses @nationaltheatre.org.uk last night: OBVIOUSLY Lesley Manville is a goddess but also blown away by Tom Jackson Greaves's movement & Natalie Roar's costumes, brilliantly conceived & reshaped historical silhouettes/textures; extraordinary cutting & dressmaking skills on display

Hester L-J