Exhibition Review: Shakespeare - Staging the World at the British Museum

Last weekend I went to the Staging the World Exhibition at the British Museum, which is running until the 25th November. It may be sacrilege to say it, but for me, the Bard is a little hit and miss. I love his sparky comedies like Much Ado, Twelfth Night, his synthesis of the supernatural in Macbeth and A Midsummer Night's Dream, his measurements of what it is to be human in King Lear and Othello. I bloody loathe Romeo and Juliet. I can't get behind the frankly boring History plays.

As such, I expected to emerge from this exhibition with mixed feelings because of the subject, and I did: and additionally I found the exhibition a bit of a mess. The exhibition incorporated two elements to its experience. Firstly, there were relics which were tenuously related to Shakespeare, and Elizabethan and Jacobean society; and their links to the wider world. Secondly, the stronger element in my mind, an interactive counterpart provided by the RSC: projections and recordings of actors performing snippets of 'relevant' soliloquies, speeches and dialogue. A memorable example for me was the brilliant opening scene of Macbeth performed by the witches providing an aural background to a room exploring King James' crusade against witchcraft in Britain.

The overall idea of the exhibition was to explore how Shakespeare gave voice to the increasingly globalised society of the turn of the 1600's. I didn't particularly care for it: it gave me very little sense of his writing, and didn't particularly provide me with new insights into that time.

If you're interested in coins, by all means, throw yourself into this exhibition with enthusiasm. If you're a rapid Shakespeare fan, likewise. For anyone unsure like me, or with any interest in insightful historical documentation, avoid. I'd love to have been in the room when the poor curators were briefed on this. 'Do we have to?' 'I feel like this has been done.' 'Oh well. Let's scour some UK museums for some Jacobean coins.' 'Errrrggghhh. Ok.'