The final event in Ramshackle’s Shakespeare 400 Season is a lecture about the hero and villain of our film shown previously on Sunday 9th October, Richard III.

We are very fortunate that Dr Bronwen Price, Principal Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Portsmouth, is coming to Bembridge specially to talk about Shakespeare’s most theatrical of princes.

In spite of the appalling atrocities over which he presides during the course of the play, Richard’s seductive wit and charismatic dynamism prevent the audience from simply siding with his victims, ensuring that he is viewed as more than just a stereotypical villain. One of the central ways in which Richard commands our attention is through his particular association with the word ‘now’, which brings both the on-stage and off-stage audiences into the immediacy of both the dramatic and historical moment whenever he appears. That is, until he actually becomes king…

Our new venue for talks and lectures is the Spinnaker, 1 Steyne Road, Bembridge PO35 5UH.

Tickets are £5 each and should be booked in advance by emailing Judith at [email protected] or by calling her on 01983 875738.

Refreshments are available for purchase at the bar afterwards, including tea, coffee and cake. Or book for Sunday lunch and stay for the talk!

Dr Bronwen Price is a Principal Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Portsmouth, where she lectures on early modern literature, especially Shakespeare. She has particular research interests in seventeenth-century women’s writing, literature of the Civil War and Republican periods and early modern ideas about retreat, friendship and community. She is currently writing a book on Mary Chudleigh, which is under contract with Manchester University Press. Her recent publications include two special issue journals on Community and Friendship in Early Modern Literature and Culture and essays on Margaret Cavendish, An Collins, Mary Chudleigh, Francis Bacon and seventeenth-century science and religion.