Living Shakespeare

Now on BBC News, a series of stories about Shakespeare's

The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.

They're here, in Chinese, Russian, Japanese, Hindi,

but the impact of Shakespeare's works around the world can be proven

in more than just 1,000 translations.

He was born right here, right inside this house in

In the 1600s, that's about a 3-day horse ride from London and from this

quintessentially English scene, hundreds of stories have unfolded

that have resonated the world over for the past four centuries.

We'll tell five such amazing stories from influential figures in China,

South Africa, Lebanon, India and the UK.

For the people you're about to hear from, Shakespeare's influence

is more than a touchstone for universal experiences.

His stories relate to specific events in their everyday lives.

In a moment we'll head to China, where we hear about the power

But first we go to South Africa, where actor Doctor John Kani talks

about the danger of playing Othello during apartheid.

Arise, black vengeance, from thy hollow cell.

Even today, Othello still makes people uncomfortable.

The story of the black general turned murderer through jealousy

I was fully aware of the risk of playing this part in apartheid

But in 1987, when I was offered the role, I could not refuse.

She loved me for the dangers I had passed.

And I loved her that she did pity them.

This only is the witchcraft I have used.

It was an opportunity to bring the relationship between black

I remember that when we walked out the audience shouted at us

The struggle against apartheid was bitter and violent.

During the rehearsals, there was a tense atmosphere.

But Othello at the Market Theatre opened to rave reviews.

In 1994, I was 51 years when I voted for the first time in my life.

I still walk about with those 51 years of horror.

Othello is a play which is woven into the struggle for equality

When we look at Shakespeare he affirms in us the equality

I still walk about with those 51 years of horror.

Let husbands know their wives have sense like them,

they see and smell and have their palates both for sweet and sour,

Over these 22 years of our democracy, I look back

Have we done enough to make a society which has space

for Othello and Desdemona were they won't be persecuted?

But words are words, I never yet did hear

that the bruised heart was pierced through the ears.

Despite wanting to be a nonracial society,

This is sometimes my fear in Othello, that Iago, the villain,

Desdemona is murdered, Othello kills himself but Iago

That somehow Shakespeare leaves racism alive.

It was at a moment in 1987 I realised the power of the arts,

the power of theatre as a force for change.

Over the years, many celebrated actors have come here to Stratford,

Shakespeare's home, to perform his plays

Over the years, many celebrated actors have come here to Stratford,

Shakespeare's home, to perform his plays

but it was while performing his greatest tragedy thousands of miles

away that a Bollywood actor came to identify with one

We know what we are but know not what we may be.

As a divorced Bollywood actress living in Mumbai,

Between being famous and wanting a personal life,

being seen as sexy while retaining my dignity.

And India both applauds and castigates me.

Near the beginning of William Shakespeare's most famous

tragedy, Hamlet, we are introduced to Ophelia.

and potential spouse for the Prince of Denmark.

Yet Ophelia struggles with the conflict of being her

brother's sweet sister, and Hamlet's breeder of sinners.

This is the dilemma facing India's women.

By some, we are expected to be traditional and pure.

While by others, we are encouraged to be independent and sultry.

Do you think I meant country matters?

There is conflict and confusion in our minds.

And these pressures can become unbearable.

A social worker abused by men blames herself

Another is raped and killed on a Delhi bus.

She is questioned for what she is wearing,

and shamed for being out late at night.

For Ophelia, it becomes quite impossible for her not to disappoint

God has given you one face, and you make yourselves another.

These women died because they were caught between desire

I do enjoy the dazzling glare of Bollywood, but sometimes I don't

In Hamlet, I can't ignore the agony of Ophelia.

Just as we can't ignore the tragedies

In Indian society, there are limitations.

I'm hopeful for an Ophelia who doesn't drown in the river,

but swims strongly to the other side.

Oh, woe is me to have seen what I have seen.

Shakespeare's plays may be written in words,

but in a moment, we'll hear how it was the imagery and themes

that chimed with a dance group during the Lebanon Civil War.

Next, though, it is the qualities of his language that enable a deaf

Your tales, sir, would cure deafness.

When it comes to the works of William Shakespeare,

I find myself seeing his tales through sounds.

It's a subject close to my heart, as I am a musician who just happens

When I read The Tempest, the words positively shout

Shakespeare entices us into the play using sound

The play is a vibrant mix of noises and sounds of the land and sea

To cry to the sea that roared to us, to sigh to the winds whose pity,

sighing back again, did us but loving wrong.

Lines like these take me back to my homeland in Aberdeenshire,

where a walk on the cliffs would force me to face the wind

so that I could feel the sound on my cheeks.

I have found a way to substitute my hearing loss.

I immerse myself into the senses within my skin, bones and muscles.

I'm tempted to replicate sound colours from the play

through my percussion instruments as I hear the words spoken

In the plotting between Antonio and Sebastian,

I feel the breath of whispers in the night.

Here lies your brother, no better than the earth

There is drama in the tales of storms and drowning.

I saw him beat the surges under him and ride upon their backs.

He trod the water whose enmity he flung aside.

Anxiety builds and pounds upon my chest cavity until Ariel

Shake off, slumber, and beware - awake, awake.

Perhaps the use of sound colours is what we most enjoy

I wonder if Shakespeare knew what I have discovered -

Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments will hum about my ears.

What masks, what dances shall we have?

Caracalla is a family, a dance company that unites

in a country that has seen too much conflict and pain.

My father, who founded Caracalla almost 15 years ago,

always believed that Shakespeare spent his so-called missing years

We really recognise his voice in Lebanon.

In 1990, during the final months of the Civil War,

fighting forced the company from our homes.

As a family, we retreated from Beirut and travelled up

So it was here in the mountain palace of Beit ed-Dine

just a short drive away that we devised our legendary dance

production of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream.

Confined by war, the palace provided a haven for Caracalla,

while the Barouk forest, a place of inspiration.

Out of this wood, do not desire to go.

Thou shalt remain here whether thou wilt or no.

Here in the forest, we could forget about conflict.

What better place to recreate our Midsummer Night's Dream?

To transport Shakespeare's tale of love and magic into dance,

we found the thread of the story, inspired by these trees.

In our production, Barouk is our mystical forest,

and the fairies are enchanted genies.

In Lebanon today, for meddling fairies we have political leaders.

When the company finally performed Midsummer Night's Dream

in the summer of 1990, it heralded a time of peace.

Like the works of Shakespeare, dance is a magical language.

And it's how we can change our reality.

It seems to me that yet we sleep, we dream.

AARON: I continue to marvel at the power of Shakespeare

As the films illustrate, it always appears possible to tie

the issues of the modern world to his works, whether in tragedy

This is why the world continues to live Shakespeare.

And this, our life, exempt from public haunt,

finds tongues in trees and books in running brooks.

Sermons and stones and good in everything.

To find out more about the essays featured in this series,

Follow the links to the Open University and the British Council.

Good morning. A cold and frosty foot start to the day and we have also

got some patchy