This programme offers a rich collection of courses, lectures, and special events. You can discuss the power, beauty, and meaning of these plays with leading academics; discover connections and the wider world of Elizabethan culture; attend productions and recitals; and explore aspects of performance, including workshop exercises led by a professional actor and director.
The academic programme
- Four special subject courses
(two for each week) - Plenary course RS0
Truth and Fiction - Evening lectures
Special subject courses
You choose two courses per week, each has five sessions. You are expected to engage in preparatory work to gain the greatest benefit from your studies.
Week 1
9.15am – 10.45am
Ra1 - The Falstaff plays: Henry IV and The Merry Wives
Ra2 - Slow reading: A Midsummer Night's Dream
Ra3 - Hamlet's problems
Ra4 - "Love is merely a madness": As You Like It
2.00pm – 3.30pm
Sa1 - "So much blood ...": Macbeth
Sa2 - The Taming of the Shrew and other early comedies
Sa3 - Romanticising Shakespeare
Sa4 - Mortality and mercy in Measure for Measure
Week 2
Group Rb: 9.15am – 10.45am
Rb1 - Shakespeare’s strange last plays
Rb2 - Shakespeare and the shapes of history
Rb3 - Antony and Cleopatra: a Roman thought about Egypt
Rb4 - Shakespeare’s troublesome endings
2.00pm – 3.30pm
Sb1 - 'So much blood …": Macbeth
Sb2 - Much Ado About Nothing and Othello
Sb3 - Nature and justice in King Lear
Sb4 - Shakespeare and friends
Plenary lectures
The theme of the morning plenary lecture programme is Truth and Fiction. Lectures will open up new connections both within and beyond the works. Speakers will include such eminent Shakespeareans as Catherine Belsey, Kate McLuskie and Catherine Alexander, as well as Martin Best, lutenist with the Royal Shakespeare Company..
Evening lectures
These evening lectures are broader in scope and include introductions to the optional excursions.
A typical day
On each weekday morning you attend a class from your Sa or Sb special subject course, followed by a plenary lecture. In the afternoons you attend a class from your Ra or Rb special subject course. One or two afternoon lectures are also scheduled. Subject specific and joint lectures are offered in the evenings.
College accommodation
Accommodation is available for participants who want to stay in a Cambridge College. Please see theaccommodation options available for this programme.
Non-residential attendance is also available if participants prefer to find their own lodgings.
Information for applicants
Download
The quickest way to apply is by using our secure online booking system. You can also apply by downloading an application form (pdf) and sending it by post or fax.