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'Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year' sees audience of 1300 gather for evening of live peformances
Former actress, author and "poetry champion" Allie Esiri partnered with Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre to host "Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year—Live" on Monday 8th July.
The event was based on Allie Esiri’s poetry anthology, Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year (Macmillan), which includes 365 poems, speeches and scenes from across all of Shakespeare’s plays. Esiri is also behind A Poem For Every Day Of The Year (Macmillan Children’s Books) and 365 Poems For Life (Bluebird), which aim to make poetry more accessible.
An audience of 1300 people attended the event on Monday to see performances by theatre and film actors including Paul Chahidi, Damian Lewis, Toheeb Jimoh and Stephen Mangan. Tracy-Ann Oberman, Tony Robinson, Samantha Spiro and Luke Thompson were also performing on the evening, alongside many others.
The event included poetry, speeches and scenes read by actors with a connection to Shakespeare’s work and to the theatre.
"We are all so incredibly lucky that these fantastic actors came out to support my mission to help bring poetry and Shakespeare to the widest possible audience," Esiri said. "It was an absolute joy to watch these superb actors bring poetry to life by reimagining some of Shakespeare’s best loved speeches, scenes and sonnets in their own special way, and remarkably with only a couple of hours rehearsal."
Esiri’s next poetry event will take place at the FT Weekend Festival at Kenwood House on 9th September 2024.
