He's still a rock-star across the pond, which sort of feeds the love I suppose. Stratford, which does its best to educate and entertain anyone who'll listen about the bard, is still a mecca for all Shakespeare lovers today. There are Shakespeare tours throughout England, as well as countless productions of his works each year. Even auditions for actors still call for performances of one modern piece and one Shakespeare piece. So you can say that, yes they've also drank the kool aid. We here in the States, have sort of missed the boat on this one - the Kardashians take up too much of our time I suppose - and that's just unfortunate. We're missing a lot.
There's a great deal that goes into making Shakespeare what he is today. He was a master wordsmith and genius storyteller but I can't say that's what has made him an icon. There were handfuls of fantastic storytellers in his day, that never received the recognition or acclaim that Will has achieved. I have to think the myth that "William Shakespeare" never really existed as a real person and was actually anyone from Sir Francis Bacon to the 6th Earl of Derby had just a bit to do with the appeal.
Scholars have debated the question for centuries and I think the intrigue always helps in today's world. Their biggest argument against William being William is that he was a minor citizen in his day. No fancy education. No traveling around the world. Just an ordinary man living in Stratford upon Avon writing works that would still be read 450 years later. But what they don't take into account is the "Why not?" aspect. Why couldn't an ordinary citizen have the god given talent to write such beautiful stories and narrative? We tell kids all the time if they can dream it, they can do it. Well, maybe little Will dreamt it and did it, successfully. Maybe he was just that good.
Aside from the intrigue aspect, his works are still relevant today. I always thought that a Shakespeare play, when performed, would be lots of British actors in period dress, throwing the "thees" and "thous" around any chance they got. Seeing one live would almost certainly help with my understanding of the material, right? Wrong. While seeing it performed makes it a bit easier to understand (oh and the British accents help a LOT - we Americans just don't have the presence to pull it off), it's still next to impossible to get the jest. That is until you throw out Elizabethan England, corsets and cod-pieces and throw in modern settings and costumes such as a beach house in 1980s Falklands (Much Ado About Nothing) or Romeo riding in on a motorcycle (Romeo and Juliet) or even Hamlet jumping around looking a lot like a certain Timelord in a tee shirt, jeans and bare feet. The everydayness gives you a chance to concentrate on the words and story rather than focusing on what in the world they're wearing. Probably just an opinion of mine, but it works in my head. And even without the beautiful words he painstakingly wrote and created much of the time (Fun Fact: He invented over 1700 words!), the stories themselves can be told in thousands of different iterations. "Taming of the Shrew" for example, has been reimagined into "Kiss Me Kate", as well as "10 Things I Hate About You", just to name a few.
Even if Shakespeare isn't really your thing, you have to appreciate the works he amassed in such a short time and the staying power these works have. I'm sure any author today envies the career "William Shakespeare" or William Shakespeare had and would give anything to have their work still relevant all these centuries later.
So Happy Birthday Will! We English nerds owe you so much! I'm sure you're brilliance and creativity will live on for centuries to come!
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