Shakespeare: Staging the World at The British Museum

One of the principle objects to be found in The British Museum's current exhibition "Shakespeare: Staging the World" is an original First Folio. Secure in it's glass case, it is what meets you as enter the first of the nine sections situated in the old central Reading Room. However, apart from the Robben Island Bible just before the exit, what is left in between is pretty ordinary.

What the exhibition tries to do is to give the viewer a glimpse of what influenced Shakespeare to write the many different types plays. Starting with Shakespeare's London (obviously), then The Forest of Arden suggesting the Warwickshire countryside responsible for "As You Like It", The Classical World (for "Julius Caesar") and so on. But the actual exhibits (a rapier, the proclamation of a plague, a woollen cap, a venetian glass goblet) were very ordinary. Some of the portraits were interesting, as were the old maps of Venice and designs for the Union Flag of Great Britain. But how relevant were all these?

The best feature ( and what enticed me to go) were the clips of scenes acted by members of the RSC scattered through the exhibition. We never see the witches, but we heard them. And Anthony Sher with lines from "The Merchant of Venice". However there is one inescapable reason why I'm so glad I went, and that is seeing the interior of the Reading Room. This architectural marvel, completed in 1857, is now almost entirely used for major exhibitions for which you have to pay. And boy, is it impressive.

Using cast iron, concrete and glass, it was built in the centre of an open courtyard which was surrounded by the four wings of the museum. It was restored when the Foster designed Great Courtyard was constructed in 2000 for a cost of £100 Million. The interior was brought back to it's former glory, and seeing it above the exhibition was well worth the price of admission.

The layout, lighting and display of the exhibition is of the highest quality that now is the benchmark of such events. So full marks for presentation, but very few for content.

I now realise that I had not before seen the Great Court since it was refurbished in 2000. I had been meaning to go for a long time, but nothing at the museum had attracted me before. As I expected, it is a completely spectacular construction. What was basically a courtyard garden is now the largest enclosed public space in Europe, with the Reading Room at it's centre. The glass roof is awesome, and the facings to the buildings seem as if they were renewed only yesterday. Very, very impressive, as the number of photos I took will testify.