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Tate Britain Performance

Pop-up Shakespeare at Tate Britain

23 April 2016 at 14.00–17.00

William Blake, Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing c.1786. Tate.

Watch Tate’s collection spring to life as four scenes from Shakespeare’s plays are spontaneously performed at Tate Britain to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.

Scenes from a Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, Othello and Romeo and Juliet will be played out in front of the paintings inspired by these works: Titania and Bottom and Lady Macbeth Seizing the Daggers by Henry Fuseli, Head of a Man by John Simpson and Queen Mab’s Cave by JMW Turner.

Here are some images with captions for a taste of what's to come:

William Blake
Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing (c.1786)
Tate

Unknown artist, Britain
A Young Lady Aged 21, Possibly Helena Snakenborg, Later Marchioness of Northampton (1569)
Tate

James Barry
King Lear Weeping over the Dead Body of Cordelia (1786–8)
Tate

Sir John Everett Millais, Bt
Ophelia (1851–2)
Tate

William Holman Hunt
Claudio and Isabella (1850)
Tate

A number of half clothes women and children stand around a woman holding a wand and a man with a donkeys head. The figures are pale but their surroundings are very dark.

Henry Fuseli Titania and Bottom c.1790

Joseph Mallord William Turner
Queen Mab’s Cave (exhibited 1846)
Tate

Two figures appear ghostly in the darkness. One appears to be Macbeth, holding two daggers, whilst the other is a woman in her night gown who holds a finger to her lip.

Henry Fuseli Lady Macbeth Seizing the Daggers exhibited 1812

Performance Times

13.00: Romeo and Juliet, room 1840

14.00: Midsummer Night’s Dream, room 1780

15.00: Othello, room 1810

16.00: Macbeth room 1780

Scenes courtesy of Spearshaker Theatre and Timezone Theatre with performances by Alice White, Allie Kaufman, Megan Smith, Tessa Hart and Shane Noone and direction by Kate Brockett and Pamela Schermann.

You can also take yourself on a trail of our other Shakespeare inspired works in Tate’s Collection. 

Tate Britain

Millbank
London SW1P 4RG
Plan your visit

Date & Time

23 April 2016 at 14.00–17.00

Find out more

  • John Everett Millais, Ophelia

    Look here upon this picture: Shakespeare in art

    Andrew Dickson

    Ophelia and the Pre-Raphaelites are back at Tate Britain! To celebrate, Andrew Dickson looks at Millais and four other artists who immortalised the Bard's characters on canvas

Artwork
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