:00:00. > :00:11.after 12:30am on BBC News it is time for Living Shakespeare.
:00:12. > :00:28.The web of our life is on a mingled yarn, good and ill together. They're
:00:29. > :00:32.here, in Chinese, Russian, Japanese, Hindi, but the impact of
:00:33. > :00:42.Shakespeare's works around the world can be proven in more than just 1000
:00:43. > :00:47.translations. He was born right here, right inside this house in
:00:48. > :00:51.Stratford-upon-Avon. In the 1600 is that's about a 15 day horse ride
:00:52. > :00:54.from London and in this quintessentially English scene,
:00:55. > :01:02.hundreds of stories have unfolded that have resonated the world over
:01:03. > :01:07.for the past four centuries. We'll tell five such amazing stories from
:01:08. > :01:19.influential figures in China, South Africa, Lebanon, India and the UK.
:01:20. > :01:32.But there's a difference. For the people you're about to hear from,
:01:33. > :01:36.Shakespeare's influence is more about his stories, it is about their
:01:37. > :01:40.everyday lives. Among them we will head to China where we hear about
:01:41. > :01:44.the power of the once forbidding Shakespeare. But first we go to
:01:45. > :01:51.South Africa where actor Doctor John Carney talks about the danger of
:01:52. > :02:01.playing fellow during apartheid. -- Othello.
:02:02. > :02:18.Our lives lack vengeance from our hollow cell.
:02:19. > :02:27.Even today Othello still makes people uncomfortable. The story of
:02:28. > :02:29.the black general turned murderer through jealousy tackles racism head
:02:30. > :02:43.on. I was fully aware of the risk of
:02:44. > :02:48.playing this part in apartheid South Africa. But in 1987, when I was
:02:49. > :02:52.offered the role, I could not refuse.
:02:53. > :03:07.She loved me for the dangers I have passed and I loved her that she
:03:08. > :03:12.didn't continue. This only is the witchcraft I have used.
:03:13. > :03:20.It was an opportunity to bring the relationship between black and white
:03:21. > :03:25.to the stage. I remember that when we walked out of the audience
:03:26. > :03:33.shouted at us as we kissed on the stage. The struggle of apartheid was
:03:34. > :03:42.vicious and violent. Dozens lost their lives. During the rehearsals
:03:43. > :03:45.there was a tense atmosphere. But Othello at the Market Theatre opened
:03:46. > :04:04.to rave reviews. In 1994, I was 51 years when I voted
:04:05. > :04:10.for the first time in my life. I still walk about with those 51 years
:04:11. > :04:19.of horror. Things have changed in South Africa. Fellow is a play which
:04:20. > :04:29.is woven into the struggle for equal to you in South Africa -- Othello.
:04:30. > :04:33.When we look at Shakespeare he affirms in to ask the equality of
:04:34. > :04:40.all human beings, black, white, male, female. Let husbands know
:04:41. > :04:45.their wives have sense like them, they see and smell and have their
:04:46. > :04:58.palates both for sweet and sour, as husbands have.
:04:59. > :05:06.Over these 22 years of our democracy, I look back at where
:05:07. > :05:12.we've come from. Have we done enough to make a society which has space
:05:13. > :05:17.for Othello and Desdemona were they won't be persecuted? But words are
:05:18. > :05:24.words, I never yet did hear that the heart was pierced through the years.
:05:25. > :05:34.Despite wanting to be a nonracial society, I don't think we're there
:05:35. > :05:39.yet. This is sometimes my fear in Othello, that the villain, his fate
:05:40. > :05:46.is unclear. Desdemona is murdered, Othello kills himself but he is
:05:47. > :05:54.never arrested and taken away. That bothers me. That somehow Shakespeare
:05:55. > :06:01.leaves racism alive. But I have hope. It was a moment in 1987 that I
:06:02. > :06:03.realised the power of the arts, the power of Theatre as a force for
:06:04. > :09:48.change. Over the years many celebrated
:09:49. > :09:52.actors have come here to Stratford, Shakespeare's home, to perform his
:09:53. > :09:57.plays but it was while performing his greatest tragedy thousands of
:09:58. > :10:05.miles away that a Bolly heard actor Ken to identify with one of his most
:10:06. > :10:22.troubled characters. -- Bollywood actor came to. We know what we are
:10:23. > :10:27.but know not what we may be. As a divorced Bollywood actress living in
:10:28. > :10:34.Mumbai, life's a balancing act. Between being famous and wanting a
:10:35. > :10:39.personal life, being seen as sexy while retaining my dignity. And
:10:40. > :10:50.India both applauds and castigates me.
:10:51. > :10:56.Near the beginning of William Shakespeare's most famous tragedy,
:10:57. > :11:01.Hamlet, we are introduced to a failure, and it innocent chaste girl
:11:02. > :11:11.and potential stars for the Prince of Denmark. Yet they the conflict of
:11:12. > :11:18.being the sweetest and Hannah's sinners. This is the dilemma facing
:11:19. > :11:27.India's women. We are all modern Ophelias. But some are expected to
:11:28. > :11:33.be traditional and pure. I shall obey my Lord. While by others, we
:11:34. > :11:43.are encouraged to be independent and sultry. Lady, shall I like in your
:11:44. > :11:50.lap width no, my lord. Do you think I meant country matters? There is
:11:51. > :11:56.conflict and confusion in our minds. And these pressures can become
:11:57. > :12:03.unbearable. A social worker abused I meant blames herself and takes her
:12:04. > :12:08.own life -- by men. Another is raped and killed on a daily bus. She is
:12:09. > :12:13.questioned for what she is wearing, and shamed for being out late at
:12:14. > :12:19.night. For Ophelia, it becomes quite impossible for her not to disappoint
:12:20. > :12:27.all the men in her life. It ends in her suicide. God has given you one
:12:28. > :12:36.face, and you make yourselves another. These women died because
:12:37. > :12:46.they were caught between desire and expectation. I do enjoy the dazzling
:12:47. > :12:53.glare of Bollywood, but sometimes I don't know who I'm supposed to be.
:12:54. > :12:58.In Hamlet, I can't ignore the agony of Ophelia. Just as we can't ignore
:12:59. > :13:06.the tragedy is unfolding around us every day. In Indian society, there
:13:07. > :13:14.are limitations. But there is liberation as well. I'm hopeful for
:13:15. > :13:23.an Ophelia who doesn't drown in the river but swims strongly to the
:13:24. > :13:27.other side. Oh, woe is me to have seen what I have seen. See what I
:13:28. > :13:39.see. Shakespeare's plays may be written
:13:40. > :13:43.in words, but in a moment, we will hear how it is the imagery and
:13:44. > :13:47.themes that chimed with a dance group during the Lebanon Civil War.
:13:48. > :13:49.Next, it is the qualities of his language that enabled a deaf
:13:50. > :13:51.musician to hear. Your tail so, would cure deafness.
:13:52. > :14:17.-- sir. When it comes to the works of
:14:18. > :14:26.William Shakespeare, I find myself seeing his tales through sounds. It
:14:27. > :14:35.is a subject close to my heart as I am a musician who just happens to be
:14:36. > :14:42.profoundly deaf. When I read the Tempest, the words positively shout
:14:43. > :14:48.Santry. Shakespeare entices us into the play using sound to colour his
:14:49. > :15:02.characters -- shout sound to me. The play is a vibrant mix of noises
:15:03. > :15:11.and sounds of the land and sea and wind and sun. To cry to the sea that
:15:12. > :15:17.roared to us, to sigh to the winds whose pity sighing back again did
:15:18. > :15:22.ask but loving wrong. Lines like these take me back to my homeland in
:15:23. > :15:26.Aberdeenshire, where a walk on the cliffs would force me to face the
:15:27. > :15:37.wind so that I could feel the sound on my cheeks. I have found a way to
:15:38. > :15:38.substitute my hearing loss. I immerse myself in to the senses
:15:39. > :15:58.within my skin, bones, and muscles. I'm tempted to replicate sound
:15:59. > :16:04.colours from the play through my percussion instruments as I hear the
:16:05. > :16:10.words spoken by the characters. In the plotting a tween Antonio and
:16:11. > :16:15.Sebastian, I feel the breath of whispers in the night -- between.
:16:16. > :16:26.Here lies your brother, no better than the Earth he lies upon. There
:16:27. > :16:32.is drama in the tales of storms and drowning. I saw him beat the surges
:16:33. > :16:39.under him and tried upon their backs. He tried the water whose
:16:40. > :16:45.energy he flung aside. -- enmity. Anxiety builds and pounce upon my
:16:46. > :16:52.chest cavity until Ariel sings a warning. Sheik of slumber and be
:16:53. > :17:01.aware, awake, awake -- shake off slumber. Perhaps the use of sound
:17:02. > :17:07.colours is what we most enjoy. Is the play unfolds. I wonder if
:17:08. > :17:19.Shakespeare knew what I have discovered with the whole body can
:17:20. > :17:22.here. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments will hum about my is. --
:17:23. > :17:30.my ears. Come now. What masks, what dances
:17:31. > :17:58.shall we have? This is a family, a dance company
:17:59. > :18:07.that unites in a country that has seen it too much conflict and pain.
:18:08. > :18:12.My father, who founded the company almost 50 years ago, always believed
:18:13. > :18:16.that Shakespeare spent his so-called missing years in the Middle East. We
:18:17. > :18:27.really recognise his voice in Lebanon. Six, seven, eight.
:18:28. > :18:37.In 1990, during the final months of the Civil War, fighting forced the
:18:38. > :18:40.company from our homes. As a family, we retreated from Beirut and
:18:41. > :18:50.travelled up into the sheath mountains. So it was here at the
:18:51. > :18:54.mountain palace with excursions and gunfire just a short drive away that
:18:55. > :19:00.we despised a legendary dance production of Shakespeare's
:19:01. > :19:07.Midsummer night's train. ! Trim. Confined by war, the Palace provided
:19:08. > :19:20.a haven. While the forest, a place of inspiration. Thou shalt remain
:19:21. > :19:26.here whether thou wilt or no. Here in the forest, we could forget about
:19:27. > :19:32.conflict. What better place to recreate our Midsummer night's dream
:19:33. > :19:37.to transport Shakespeare's tale of love and magic into dance. We found
:19:38. > :19:46.the thread of the story, inspired by these trees. Words became movements.
:19:47. > :19:53.In our production, it is a mystical forest, and the fairies are a entire
:19:54. > :20:00.to genius. -- enchanted. There must give causes chaos. -- their
:20:01. > :20:10.mischief. Lord, what fools these mortals be. In Lebanon today, for
:20:11. > :20:16.meddling fairies we have political leaders, we are merely their
:20:17. > :20:24.playthings. When the company finally performs the play in the summer of
:20:25. > :20:30.1990, it heralds a time of peace. Like the works of Shakespeare, dance
:20:31. > :20:37.is a magical language. And it is how we can change our reality. Are you
:20:38. > :20:47.sure that we are awake? It seems to me that yet we sleep, we dream.
:20:48. > :21:00.I continued to marvel at the power of Shakespeare. 400 years after his
:21:01. > :21:04.death. As the films illustrate, it always appears possible to tie the
:21:05. > :21:10.issues of the modern world to his works, whether in tragedy or comedy,
:21:11. > :21:20.good times or bad. This is why the world continues to live Shakespeare.
:21:21. > :21:24.In this life, exempt from public good, finds tongues and trees and
:21:25. > :21:26.books and reading books. Sermons and stones and good in everything. I
:21:27. > :21:42.would not change it. To find out more about the essays
:21:43. > :21:46.featured in this series, go to the website. Follow the links to the
:21:47. > :22:14.Open University and the British Council.
:22:15. > :22:15.Good evening. Hurricane Cole scored a direct hit on