Living Shakespeare

after 12:30am on BBC News it is time for Living Shakespeare.

The web of our life is on 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 1000

translations. He was born right here, right inside this house in

Stratford-upon-Avon. In the 1600 is that's about a 15 day horse ride

from London and in 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.

But there's a difference. For the people you're about to hear from,

Shakespeare's influence is more about his stories, it is about their

everyday lives. Among them we will head to China where we hear about

the power of the once forbidding Shakespeare. But first we go to

South Africa where actor Doctor John Carney talks about the danger of

playing fellow during apartheid. -- Othello.

Our lives lack vengeance from our hollow cell.

Even today Othello still makes people uncomfortable. The story of

the black general turned murderer through jealousy tackles racism head

on. I was fully aware of the risk of

playing this part in apartheid South Africa. But in 1987, when I was

offered the role, I could not refuse.

She loved me for the dangers I have passed and I loved her that she

didn't continue. This only is the witchcraft I have used.

It was an opportunity to bring the relationship between black and white

to the stage. I remember that when we walked out of the audience

shouted at us as we kissed on the stage. The struggle of apartheid was

vicious and violent. Dozens lost their lives. 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. Things have changed in South Africa. Fellow is a play which

is woven into the struggle for equal to you in South Africa -- Othello.

When we look at Shakespeare he affirms in to ask the equality of

all human beings, black, white, male, female. Let husbands know

their wives have sense like them, they see and smell and have their

palates both for sweet and sour, as husbands have.

Over these 22 years of our democracy, I look back at where

we've come from. 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 heart was pierced through the years.

Despite wanting to be a nonracial society, I don't think we're there

yet. This is sometimes my fear in Othello, that the villain, his fate

is unclear. Desdemona is murdered, Othello kills himself but he is

never arrested and taken away. That bothers me. That somehow Shakespeare

leaves racism alive. But I have hope. It was a moment in 1987 that 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 but it was while performing his greatest tragedy thousands of

miles away that a Bolly heard actor Ken to identify with one of his most

troubled characters. -- Bollywood actor came to. We know what we are

but know not what we may be. As a divorced Bollywood actress living in

Mumbai, life's a balancing act. 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 a failure, and it innocent chaste girl

and potential stars for the Prince of Denmark. Yet they the conflict of

being the sweetest and Hannah's sinners. This is the dilemma facing

India's women. We are all modern Ophelias. But some are expected to

be traditional and pure. I shall obey my Lord. While by others, we

are encouraged to be independent and sultry. Lady, shall I like in your

lap width no, my lord. 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 I meant blames herself and takes her

own life -- by men. Another is raped and killed on a daily 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

all the men in her life. It ends in her suicide. God has given you one

face, and you make yourselves another. These women died because

they were caught between desire and expectation. I do enjoy the dazzling

glare of Bollywood, but sometimes I don't know who I'm supposed to be.

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

the tragedy is unfolding around us every day. In Indian society, there

are limitations. But there is liberation as well. 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. See what I

see. Shakespeare's plays may be written

in words, but in a moment, we will hear how it is the imagery and

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

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

musician to hear. Your tail so, would cure deafness.

-- sir. When it comes to the works of

William Shakespeare, I find myself seeing his tales through sounds. It

is a subject close to my heart as I am a musician who just happens to be

profoundly deaf. When I read the Tempest, the words positively shout

Santry. Shakespeare entices us into the play using sound to colour his

characters -- shout sound to me. The play is a vibrant mix of noises

and sounds of the land and sea and wind and sun. To cry to the sea that

roared to us, to sigh to the winds whose pity sighing back again did

ask 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 in to 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 by the characters. In the plotting a tween Antonio and

Sebastian, I feel the breath of whispers in the night -- between.

Here lies your brother, no better than the Earth he lies upon. There

is drama in the tales of storms and drowning. I saw him beat the surges

under him and tried upon their backs. He tried the water whose

energy he flung aside. -- enmity. Anxiety builds and pounce upon my

chest cavity until Ariel sings a warning. Sheik of slumber and be

aware, awake, awake -- shake off slumber. Perhaps the use of sound

colours is what we most enjoy. Is the play unfolds. I wonder if

Shakespeare knew what I have discovered with the whole body can

here. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments will hum about my is. --

my ears. Come now. What masks, what dances

shall we have? This is a family, a dance company

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

My father, who founded the company almost 50 years ago, always believed

that Shakespeare spent his so-called missing years in the Middle East. We

really recognise his voice in Lebanon. Six, seven, eight.

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 into the sheath mountains. So it was here at the

mountain palace with excursions and gunfire just a short drive away that

we despised a legendary dance production of Shakespeare's

Midsummer night's train. ! Trim. Confined by war, the Palace provided

a haven. While the forest, a place of inspiration. 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. Words became movements.

In our production, it is a mystical forest, and the fairies are a entire

to genius. -- enchanted. There must give causes chaos. -- their

mischief. Lord, what fools these mortals be. In Lebanon today, for

meddling fairies we have political leaders, we are merely their

playthings. When the company finally performs the play in the summer of

1990, it heralds a time of peace. Like the works of Shakespeare, dance

is a magical language. And it is how we can change our reality. Are you

sure that we are awake? It seems to me that yet we sleep, we dream.

I continued to marvel at the power of Shakespeare. 400 years after his

death. As the films illustrate, it always appears possible to tie the

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

good times or bad. This is why the world continues to live Shakespeare.

In this life, exempt from public good, finds tongues and trees and

books and reading books. Sermons and stones and good in everything. I

would not change it. To find out more about the essays

featured in this series, go to the website. Follow the links to the

Open University and the British Council.

Good evening. Hurricane Cole scored a direct hit on