Being Shakespeare

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Simon Callow has a personality big enough to fill any stage. He’s been acting for almost four decades, directed plays and a movie, written several books and already performed one man shows about Oscar Wilde and Charles Dickens.

But this often most flamboyant of actors is in comparatively subdued, though still enthusiastic, form as he tackles William Shakespeare, following him from cradle to grave in Shakespearian scholar Jonathan Bate’s well-structured combination of biographical detail, speculation and extracts from the Bard’s works.

Keeping to the timeline of the famous Seven Ages of Man speech from As You Like It, Callow entertains us with snippets of information about Shakespeare’s parents (his father was a glovemaker), his childhood, early marriage, career and death, interspersed with illustrative examples from his texts.

Slipping in and out of character, Callow gives us not only a schoolboy William but also an ageing Falstaff, not only Romeo but Juliet too. Callow is a fine actor and a well-informed guide with obvious fondness for his subject, and although it can’t - and doesn’t - penetrate too deeply into the psyche of the famous playwright himself, this simply staged evening has something to offer both the Shakespeare aficionado and the tentative novice.

Trafalgar Studios 1, Whitehall, SW1A 2DY (0844 871 7632) Tube: Charing Cross ambassadortickets.com/trafalgarstudios beingshakespeare.com Until 23rd July (£20- £45)