:00:12. > :00:13.Now on BBC News, a series of stories about Shakespeare's
:00:14. > :00:19.The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.
:00:20. > :00:22.They're here, in Chinese, Russian, Japanese, Hindi,
:00:23. > :00:25.but the impact of Shakespeare's works around the world can be proven
:00:26. > :00:37.in more than just 1,000 translations.
:00:38. > :00:41.He was born right here, right inside this house in
:00:42. > :00:57.In the 1600s, that's about a 3-day horse ride from London and from this
:00:58. > :00:59.quintessentially English scene, hundreds of stories have unfolded
:01:00. > :01:01.that have resonated the world over for the past four centuries.
:01:02. > :01:04.We'll tell five such amazing stories from influential figures in China,
:01:05. > :01:06.South Africa, Lebanon, India and the UK.
:01:07. > :01:27.For the people you're about to hear from, Shakespeare's influence
:01:28. > :01:29.is more than a touchstone for universal experiences.
:01:30. > :01:33.His stories relate to specific events in their everyday lives.
:01:34. > :01:36.In a moment we'll head to China, where we hear about the power
:01:37. > :01:40.But first we go to South Africa, where actor Doctor John Kani talks
:01:41. > :01:55.about the danger of playing Othello during apartheid.
:01:56. > :02:12.Arise, black vengeance, from thy hollow cell.
:02:13. > :02:23.Even today, Othello still makes people uncomfortable.
:02:24. > :02:25.The story of the black general turned murderer through jealousy
:02:26. > :02:37.I was fully aware of the risk of playing this part in apartheid
:02:38. > :02:46.But in 1987, when I was offered the role, I could not refuse.
:02:47. > :02:54.She loved me for the dangers I had passed.
:02:55. > :03:00.And I loved her that she did pity them.
:03:01. > :03:07.This only is the witchcraft I have used.
:03:08. > :03:10.It was an opportunity to bring the relationship between black
:03:11. > :03:19.I remember that when we walked out the audience shouted at us
:03:20. > :03:27.The struggle against apartheid was bitter and violent.
:03:28. > :03:37.During the rehearsals, there was a tense atmosphere.
:03:38. > :03:46.But Othello at the Market Theatre opened to rave reviews.
:03:47. > :04:12.In 1994, I was 51 years when I voted for the first time in my life.
:04:13. > :04:15.I still walk about with those 51 years of horror.
:04:16. > :04:19.Othello is a play which is woven into the struggle for equality
:04:20. > :04:23.When we look at Shakespeare he affirms in us the equality
:04:24. > :04:40.I still walk about with those 51 years of horror.
:04:41. > :04:42.Let husbands know their wives have sense like them,
:04:43. > :04:46.they see and smell and have their palates both for sweet and sour,
:04:47. > :04:59.Over these 22 years of our democracy, I look back
:05:00. > :05:02.Have we done enough to make a society which has space
:05:03. > :05:09.for Othello and Desdemona were they won't be persecuted?
:05:10. > :05:11.But words are words, I never yet did hear
:05:12. > :05:31.that the bruised heart was pierced through the ears.
:05:32. > :05:32.Despite wanting to be a nonracial society,
:05:33. > :05:36.This is sometimes my fear in Othello, that Iago, the villain,
:05:37. > :05:39.Desdemona is murdered, Othello kills himself but Iago
:05:40. > :05:48.That somehow Shakespeare leaves racism alive.
:05:49. > :05:54.It was at a moment in 1987 I realised the power of the arts,
:05:55. > :07:09.the power of theatre as a force for change.
:07:10. > :07:11.Over the years, many celebrated actors have come here to Stratford,
:07:12. > :09:39.Shakespeare's home, to perform his plays
:09:40. > :09:43.Over the years, many celebrated actors have come here to Stratford,
:09:44. > :09:48.Shakespeare's home, to perform his plays
:09:49. > :09:51.but it was while performing his greatest tragedy thousands of miles
:09:52. > :09:53.away that a Bollywood actor came to identify with one
:09:54. > :10:18.We know what we are but know not what we may be.
:10:19. > :10:20.As a divorced Bollywood actress living in Mumbai,
:10:21. > :10:28.Between being famous and wanting a personal life,
:10:29. > :10:32.being seen as sexy while retaining my dignity.
:10:33. > :10:46.And India both applauds and castigates me.
:10:47. > :10:50.Near the beginning of William Shakespeare's most famous
:10:51. > :10:53.tragedy, Hamlet, we are introduced to Ophelia.
:10:54. > :10:59.and potential spouse for the Prince of Denmark.
:11:00. > :11:02.Yet Ophelia struggles with the conflict of being her
:11:03. > :11:04.brother's sweet sister, and Hamlet's breeder of sinners.
:11:05. > :11:08.This is the dilemma facing India's women.
:11:09. > :11:31.By some, we are expected to be traditional and pure.
:11:32. > :11:35.While by others, we are encouraged to be independent and sultry.
:11:36. > :11:44.Do you think I meant country matters?
:11:45. > :11:47.There is conflict and confusion in our minds.
:11:48. > :11:50.And these pressures can become unbearable.
:11:51. > :11:54.A social worker abused by men blames herself
:11:55. > :12:01.Another is raped and killed on a Delhi bus.
:12:02. > :12:07.She is questioned for what she is wearing,
:12:08. > :12:10.and shamed for being out late at night.
:12:11. > :12:14.For Ophelia, it becomes quite impossible for her not to disappoint
:12:15. > :12:30.God has given you one face, and you make yourselves another.
:12:31. > :12:33.These women died because they were caught between desire
:12:34. > :12:42.I do enjoy the dazzling glare of Bollywood, but sometimes I don't
:12:43. > :12:50.In Hamlet, I can't ignore the agony of Ophelia.
:12:51. > :12:53.Just as we can't ignore the tragedies
:12:54. > :13:05.In Indian society, there are limitations.
:13:06. > :13:11.I'm hopeful for an Ophelia who doesn't drown in the river,
:13:12. > :13:18.but swims strongly to the other side.
:13:19. > :13:22.Oh, woe is me to have seen what I have seen.
:13:23. > :13:33.Shakespeare's plays may be written in words,
:13:34. > :13:37.but in a moment, we'll hear how it was the imagery and themes
:13:38. > :13:43.that chimed with a dance group during the Lebanon Civil War.
:13:44. > :13:46.Next, though, it is the qualities of his language that enable a deaf
:13:47. > :14:10.Your tales, sir, would cure deafness.
:14:11. > :14:13.When it comes to the works of William Shakespeare,
:14:14. > :14:21.I find myself seeing his tales through sounds.
:14:22. > :14:24.It's a subject close to my heart, as I am a musician who just happens
:14:25. > :14:36.When I read The Tempest, the words positively shout
:14:37. > :14:54.Shakespeare entices us into the play using sound
:14:55. > :15:04.The play is a vibrant mix of noises and sounds of the land and sea
:15:05. > :15:09.To cry to the sea that roared to us, to sigh to the winds whose pity,
:15:10. > :15:12.sighing back again, did us but loving wrong.
:15:13. > :15:15.Lines like these take me back to my homeland in Aberdeenshire,
:15:16. > :15:20.where a walk on the cliffs would force me to face the wind
:15:21. > :15:23.so that I could feel the sound on my cheeks.
:15:24. > :15:28.I have found a way to substitute my hearing loss.
:15:29. > :15:33.I immerse myself into the senses within my skin, bones and muscles.
:15:34. > :15:38.I'm tempted to replicate sound colours from the play
:15:39. > :15:47.through my percussion instruments as I hear the words spoken
:15:48. > :16:05.In the plotting between Antonio and Sebastian,
:16:06. > :16:10.I feel the breath of whispers in the night.
:16:11. > :16:13.Here lies your brother, no better than the earth
:16:14. > :16:27.There is drama in the tales of storms and drowning.
:16:28. > :16:30.I saw him beat the surges under him and ride upon their backs.
:16:31. > :16:39.He trod the water whose enmity he flung aside.
:16:40. > :16:41.Anxiety builds and pounds upon my chest cavity until Ariel
:16:42. > :16:52.Shake off, slumber, and beware - awake, awake.
:16:53. > :17:01.Perhaps the use of sound colours is what we most enjoy
:17:02. > :17:07.I wonder if Shakespeare knew what I have discovered -
:17:08. > :17:28.Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments will hum about my ears.
:17:29. > :17:38.What masks, what dances shall we have?
:17:39. > :17:52.Caracalla is a family, a dance company that unites
:17:53. > :18:01.in a country that has seen too much conflict and pain.
:18:02. > :18:07.My father, who founded Caracalla almost 15 years ago,
:18:08. > :18:10.always believed that Shakespeare spent his so-called missing years
:18:11. > :18:16.We really recognise his voice in Lebanon.
:18:17. > :18:27.In 1990, during the final months of the Civil War,
:18:28. > :18:31.fighting forced the company from our homes.
:18:32. > :18:36.As a family, we retreated from Beirut and travelled up
:18:37. > :18:46.So it was here in the mountain palace of Beit ed-Dine
:18:47. > :18:49.just a short drive away that we devised our legendary dance
:18:50. > :18:56.production of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream.
:18:57. > :19:02.Confined by war, the palace provided a haven for Caracalla,
:19:03. > :19:10.while the Barouk forest, a place of inspiration.
:19:11. > :19:13.Out of this wood, do not desire to go.
:19:14. > :19:20.Thou shalt remain here whether thou wilt or no.
:19:21. > :19:22.Here in the forest, we could forget about conflict.
:19:23. > :19:30.What better place to recreate our Midsummer Night's Dream?
:19:31. > :19:32.To transport Shakespeare's tale of love and magic into dance,
:19:33. > :19:35.we found the thread of the story, inspired by these trees.
:19:36. > :19:45.In our production, Barouk is our mystical forest,
:19:46. > :19:47.and the fairies are enchanted genies.
:19:48. > :20:10.In Lebanon today, for meddling fairies we have political leaders.
:20:11. > :20:13.When the company finally performed Midsummer Night's Dream
:20:14. > :20:24.in the summer of 1990, it heralded a time of peace.
:20:25. > :20:26.Like the works of Shakespeare, dance is a magical language.
:20:27. > :20:31.And it's how we can change our reality.
:20:32. > :20:44.It seems to me that yet we sleep, we dream.
:20:45. > :20:47.AARON: I continue to marvel at the power of Shakespeare
:20:48. > :21:00.As the films illustrate, it always appears possible to tie
:21:01. > :21:04.the issues of the modern world to his works, whether in tragedy
:21:05. > :21:12.This is why the world continues to live Shakespeare.
:21:13. > :21:19.And this, our life, exempt from public haunt,
:21:20. > :21:33.finds tongues in trees and books in running brooks.
:21:34. > :21:35.Sermons and stones and good in everything.
:21:36. > :21:39.To find out more about the essays featured in this series,
:21:40. > :22:09.Follow the links to the Open University and the British Council.
:22:10. > :22:14.Good morning. A cold and frosty foot start to the day and we have also
:22:15. > :22:15.got some patchy