WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE - LIFE AND WORKS

William Shakespeare was born on April 26 in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon in England and he died on April 23 in 1616 in England. He was an English playwright, actor and poet. People also used to call him "The Bard of Avon". By 1592, he was known as an actor and a playwright in London. In 1597 Shakespeare had already written and published 15 of his 37 plays. Most of his plays are about human conflicts and the question of order and chaos. Shakespeare’s plays have been performed in countless hamlets, villages, cities and metropolises for more than 400 years.

Now let's talk about Shakespeare's plays. This author's plays wrote a total of 37 plays revolving around several main themes: histories, tragedies, comedies and tragicomedies. Romeo and Juliet was the only tragic love story. William Shakespeare's first plays were mostly histories. Shakespeare also wrote several comedies during his early period: the witty romance A Midsummer Night's Dream, and obviously the romantic Merchant of Venice. He also wrote many plays before 1600. For example: Titus Andronicus, Love's Labour’s Lost, and The Comedy of Errors, etc... We notice that most plays written after 1600 were tragedies and tragicomedies, for example Macbeth and Othello. Shakespeare's plays are timeless and universal. Hamlet, the best known of his plays deals with many themes: betrayal, incest, and moral failure.

Written by Mélanie Anton and Elisa Abbou

THE GENESIS OF ROMEO AND JULIET

Little is known about Shakespeare's life but there is a film which is a source of interesting information: “Shakespeare in Love”.

The film is about some crucial years of William Shakespeare’s life and the genesis of one of his most famous plays, Romeo and Juliet. Actually, perhaps the film is a little fictional because we know very little about his life. But something may be true and in any case we like to think that it is because it is all very romantic. The film shows William, a young author, in London, in 1593, short of ideas and incapable of starting writing a work called "Romeo and Ethel". When he meets Viola, a noblewoman who must marry a Count shortly, William falls deeply in love and is loved back; he overcomes the writer's block and invents the story of Romeo and Juliet. She will then inspire him for other new fascinating comedies.

Written by Chiara Ochs, Asia Cotali, Asia Zabeo