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William Shakespeare

January

Could an infinite number of monkeys, each given an infinite amount of time to peck away at a typewriter, eventually produce, by pure chance, the complete works of William Shakespeare?

Monkeys, Shakespeare and AI: latest thinking on an old puzzle

Could monkeys really type all of Shakespeare? Not in this universe, suggests new research from UTS into one of science’s favourite puzzles.

  • Alexander Nazaryan

June 2024

Barrister Katherine Brazenor and her father, neurosurgeon Graeme Brazenor, are the patrons of Bell Shakespeare’s new production of King Lear.

The unlikely father and daughter paying for King Lear

Barrister Katherine Brazenor has a taste for the darkly comic. No wonder she’s enlisted her father as a co-patron of the Bard’s play on a fatally dysfunctional family.

  • Michael Bailey
Donald Trump is toddler-like in his neediness, his self-centredness, his whiny insistence that he actually won.

It will be a miracle if American democracy survives this election

Bit by bit, the United States is becoming like some Central American banana republic, where presidents who lose office expect to be jailed by their successors.

  • Daniel Hannan

May 2024

Everyone seems keen to get their hands on quantum supercomputing hardware.

Only quantum physics can explain an investment this weird

The federal government has replaced sports rorts with a quantum rort that will not make real revolutions like AI go any faster.

  • Toby Walsh

October 2023

Jane Montgomery Griffiths was a show-stealer as Malvolia in Bell Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.

Bell Shakespeare puts Twelfth Night through the gender blender

Review: A new production of Shakespeare’s comedy at Sydney Opera House finds laughter and darkness in our enduring fixation on physical appearance.

  • Michael Bailey
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Singer-songwriter Sarah Blasko has composed the soundtrack for Bell Shakespeare’s new production of ‘Twelfth Night’.

Sarah Blasko had long dismissed ‘Twelfth Night’ – then she scored it

Composing a soundtrack for the Shakespearean comedy seemed an unlikely job for this most serious of singer-songwriters, but music proved to be the food of love.

  • Michael Bailey

July 2023

A lot on the line. Pat Cummins speaks to the media at Old Trafford on Tuesday.

High stakes at rain-soaked Old Trafford

As Australia and England prepare for the fourth Test in Manchester, no one can recall a series that has attracted as much interest or spite in recent Ashes history.

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  • Andrew Clark

February 2023

Google’s campus in California.

Google reveals chatbot rival as AI tech race heats up

Parent company Alphabet is opening up its new service called Bard for testing to compete with Microsoft-backed ChatGPT.

  • Jeffrey Dastin

April 2022

In the last four weeks, stocks have recovered well not only from the initial hit following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but also from the sell-off recorded earlier in the new year.

Stocks’ mysterious strength should not stop investors acting

Those who are heavily exposed should make the most of the strength of equities and take some chips off the table.

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  • Mohamed El-Erian

February 2022

Richard Roxburgh (left) will play Prospero in Sydney Theatre Company’s The Tempest, directed by Kip Williams.

‘Too much’: Why Richard Roxburgh avoided Shakespeare for 27 years

The Rake actor’s method for playing Hamlet in 1994 almost brought him to madness, but he’s braving the Bard again for Sydney Theatre Company.

  • Michael Bailey

December 2021

Author Anne Rice in California at a book signing in 2016.

Anne Rice, who spun gothic tales of vampires, dies at 80

Anne Rice was a largely unknown writer when she turned a short story she had written in the late 1960s into ‘Interview With the Vampire’.

  • Neil Genzlinger

September 2021

Eryn Jean Norvill in The Picture of Dorian Gray, STC’s big 2020 hit which will return in 2022, and be toured in partnership with Michael Cassel Group.

Sydney Theatre Company to return in November

It becomes the first major performing arts company from a locked-down state to announce new performances, and also has a deal with Michael Cassel Group to buoy it.

  • Michael Bailey
Ella Prince.

Bell Shakespeare brings a Bard favourite to the Tasmanian capital

Tasmanians are in the fortunate position of being able to enjoy live theatre performances, and after being rescheduled many times Australia’s best known producers of the Bard’s work will finally open in Hobart.

July 2021

Kerr Neilson, pictured at his McMahon’s Point home on Thursday, wants kids to get the Shakespeare experience he never did.

Kerr Neilson gives record donation to support Shakespeare

The billionaire founder of Platinum Asset Management reveals deep, personal reasons for backing Bell Shakespeare’s work with $3 million.

  • Michael Bailey

May 2021

In late 2020, Universal Music purchased Dylan’s entire songwriting catalogue of over 600 songs, reportedly for more than $US300 million.

Bob Dylan at 80 – three takes on his changing times

For all his achievements and acclaim, Dylan still has the capacity to catch his public unaware. A trio of books try to capture the conflict between trickster and soothsayer.

  • Ludovic Hunter-Tilney
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April 2021

A girl plays guitar and a couple kiss under a mural depicting William Shakespeare on the south bank of river Thames, as the capital is set to reopen after the lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak, in London, Saturday, July 4, 2020. England is embarking on perhaps its biggest lockdown easing yet as pubs and restaurants have the right to reopen for the first time in more than three months. In addition to the reopening of much of the hospitality sector, couples can tie the knot once again, while many of those who have had enough of their lockdown hair can finally get a trim. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

Time to end Australian theatre’s Shakespeare obsession

A one-man monologue by Shakespearean actor John Bell could be the moment for the arts community to end its obsession with the Bard of Avon.

  • Aaron Patrick

March 2021

John Bell, on the eve of a season of one-man shows at Sydney Opera House, fears for the Bard’s future in schools.

Don’t let cancel culture get to Shakespeare, John Bell pleads

Australia’s greatest Shakespearean actor says over-stretched teachers and ‘cancel culture’ threaten the great playwright’s future on the curriculum.

  • Michael Bailey

February 2021

Republicans are making futile efforts to bridle Donald Trump so they can curb his scolding tongue while keeping his voters.

The tale of the untamable shrew

Donald Trump has the nastiest tongue ever heard in American politics. But unlike Shakespeare’s Kate, he won’t be persuaded to be more civilised.

  • Maureen Dowd

January 2021

Ready for a fight then?: Orson Welles as Macbeth couldn't hold a candle to either presidential candidate.

The astonishing story of 'Voodoo Macbeth'

Orson Welles' controversial, revolutionary all-black Shakespeare production from 1936 has inspired a radio play and an upcoming film.

  • Claire Allfree

December 2020

William Shakespeare, 81, receives his COVID-19 vaccine at the start of the largest ever immunisation program in the UK's history.

William Shakespeare has been vaccinated against the coronavirus

That's William Shakespeare of Warwickshire, not the guy from Stratford-on-Avon, and he did not shy away from his duty.

  • Elian Peltier

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/person/william-shakespeare-5rq