““You Get a Feed There” – The New Zealand Shakespeare hut and other Shakespeare tales from 1916”, Dr Mark Houlahan (Waikato)

Date: 23 April, 2016
Time: 10:30am-11:30am
Venue: Waikato Museum, Hamilton, NZ
Cost: Free event. More info: http://waikatomuseum.co.nz/exhibitions-and-events/view/2145882751/you-get-a-feed-there-the-new-zealand-shakespeare-hut-and-other-shakespeare-tales-from-1916

Mark Houlahan, Lecturer, University of Waikato and President Australia and New Zealand Shakespeare Association (ANZSA) speaks on Shakespeare’s 400th anniversary and in commemoration of WWI.

The memory of Gallipoli casts a long shadow over our perspective of WWI. Yet if we focus exclusively on grim reports from the front, we settle for an uncomplicated picture of this war. For throughout 1916, New Zealanders round the globe embraced the 300th anniversary commemorations of Shakespeare’s death. In January 1916, British forces abandoned the Dardanelles after the catastrophic Gallipoli campaign. At home in New Zealand, space was found amidst the battle news to celebrate Shakespeare’s anniversary.

Dr Mark Houlahan is a Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Waikato and current President of the Australian and NZ Shakespeare Association (ANZSA). He has published widely on issues of Shakespeare, adaptation and cultural formation.