Tessera

Hester L-J

@starcrossed2018.bsky.social

Shakespeare, slowly #SlowShakespeare (currently: #MoonMad); editing (2GV for Arden, ongoing), introducing (R&J, Cambridge, 2023), writing (Textile Shakespeare, Oxford, 2025) & Very Short Intro to the Histories (currently). Teaching in Cambridge (Catz) 🇳🇿

3354 Posts3149 Follower 1263 Folgt

Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · 2d ago

I'm doing this! Dating advice includes 'wear a big hat', which is also an ever-green summer fashion tip!😎

Orange Tree Theatre@orangetreetheatre.bsky.social · 2d ago

🎙️ Join us for our next Saturday Seminar: Much Ado About Love. Explore how Love’s Labour’s Lost and Much Ado About Nothing reveal the nature of love, from poetry and friendship to war and romance, with a dash of 1590s dating advice! 📅 15 Aug, 11am 🎟️ https://ow.ly/FwmE50ZvQEp

Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · last wk.

Puck: give me your hands ❤️ #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... My 8th #SlowShakespeare blog since 2018, DONE. A last magical image of Puck (Rosie Sheehy) @the-rsc.bsky.social Dream 2024. Of all the versions I've included, the 2 that have resonated most have been Brook 1970 & Noble 1994.

A photograph of a play in performance. On a very dimly lit stage, with haze, a person is standing wearing dark trousers and boots, with a pale shirt and red braces. Their arms are outstretched to the side and they're looking up at an enormous cluster of blue-lit orbs of various sizes. It looks magical.

A photograph of a play in performance. In a white box set, four people are lounging asleep in swings hanging from the ceiling; they wear white and brightly coloured clothes. On the stage, in front of an enormous red feather, a man wearing a white singlet and cloth cap, with black button nose, is leaning against a beautiful woman in a green satin caftan. Other people wearing pale grey silk pyjamas are gathered around.

A photograph of a stage set. The background is deep blue and hanging from the lighting rig are lightbulbs that look like drops of gold. There are 5 doorways in the blue backdrop, and the back of the stage is lit red. There is an enormous red umbrella hanging upside down over the stage. It looks magical.

Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · last wk.

Puck: we hope you liked the play! #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... One of my favourite Pucks of recent years: David Moorst, in the 2019 Dream @bridgetheatre.bsky.social (revived 2025), astonishing acrobatics on his silken swing, including flipping upside-down.

A photograph of a character in a play. A young man is sitting in a swing made from a loop of white silk, suspended over the audience, who are visible standing below. He's wearing a white singlet with brightly coloured patches on the front, and similarly patched dark jeans. His feet are bare and he has multiple wrist-bands on both wrists. He's holding the sides of the swing and smiling broadly.

Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · 2w ago

Oberon: bless this house with sparkling dew! #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Maybe not dew-drops, but Puck's sparkly bubble gun in the current Globe Dream does a pretty magical job. Played by the fabulous Michael Grady-Hall.

A photograph of a character in a play. A man wearing a short pale silk jacket over green elizabethan style breeches, with a ruff covered with flowers and a bit of green in his hair. He's smiling and spraying tiny bubbles from a big pink plastic bubble gun. There are rainbow coloured flowers in the background.

Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · 2w ago

Look at this beautiful new thing by the fabulous, path-finding @profcatheriner.bsky.social - in the innovative companion volumes to the Arden Fourth Series Shakespeare 🗡️🛏️💀💍🕯️❤️

The Arden Shakespeare@ardenpublisher.bsky.social · 2w ago

Beds, perfumes, doublets, torches, lutes, clocks, handkerchiefs… Who owned these objects in early modern England? How were they used? @profcatheriner.bsky.social's 'Shakespeare's Objects' explores 33 significant objects in full colour illustration. Out today! https://bit.ly/4f7YOaM

Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · 2w ago

Oberon: bless this house, these unions, their future children #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... The closing moments of Peter Brook's Dream @the-rsc.bsky.social and Tim Supple's DASH Arts / RSC 2006, in which the company sang an ancient wedding hymn in Sanskrit and danced with lights...

A photograph of a play in performance. On a dimly lit stage, people are wearing long black cloaks over white robes; one in the middle is wearing a tall black hat. Some of them are carrying dishes with candles in them.

A photograph of a play in performance. On a stage covered with golden earth, there are two couples out of focus in the foreground. In the middle of the stage, a group of people are dancing; they have small clay lanterns in their outstretched hands and some are standing on one leg. All are wearing brightly coloured costumes; some of the men have bare chests.

Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · 2w ago

Oberon: fairies, prepare to dance & sing a blessing! #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... A favourite image from the 2005 @the-rsc.bsky.social Dream, dir. Greg Doran: Oberon (Joe Dixon) & Titania (Amanda Harris) with the (beautiful, puppet) changeling boy & the fairies with their lanterns.

A photograph of a play in performance: two people are standing facing front, holding between them a puppet in the shape of a toddler. The man on the left is wearing a sparkly pale coat over a bare chest; the woman on the right is wearing a sparkly top with bare arms. Behind them there are shadowy figures holding poles with lanterns on them. It looks magical.

Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · 2w ago

Puck: it's FAIRY TIME! #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Puck (Ajay Kumar) in the 2006 DASH Arts / @the-rsc.bsky.social Dream, dir. Tim Supple. (Very slightly later in the action...)

A photograph of a play in performance. A large group of people wearing very brightly coloured clothes are sitting on a stand coloured with sand. In front of them is a smiling man, wearing a bright orange very brief loincloth; his arms and chest are wrapped with black ropes. He has a mohawk hairstyle and is smiling broadly.

Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · 2w ago

Puck: it's the WITCHING HOUR! #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Three Pucks, almost a century apart: Lucy Ellinson @the-rsc.bsky.social 2016 dir. Erica Whyman, Rosie Sheehy @the-rsc.bsky.social 2024 dir. Eleanor Rhode, & a promotional image: Leslie French in Regent's Park in 1935.

A photograph of a play in performance: a woman wearing a black top hat and black trouser suit with big white cuffs and red powder on the shoulders is standing in the foreground. She's got a broom in her right hand and there are red petals on the floor in front of her. There are other people sitting and standing behind, some of them sweeping the stage, and strings of fairy lights.

A person standing on a dimly lit stage. They're wearing baggy purple shorts and a pale shirt, with long socks and lace-up shoes. Their collar-length hair is green, and they're leaning on a large broom, clasping the handle in both hands.

A sepia photograph. A young man is emerging from foliage, standing on what looks like ivy. He's wearing a skimpy one-shouldered tunic and looking to his left, his right arm raised.

Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · 2w ago

Theseus: BEDTIME! #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Theseus/Oberon and Hippolyta/Titania weren't doubled in the 2016 @the-rsc.bsky.social Dream: here's Hippolyta (Laura Harding) and Theseus (Sam Redford), dir. Erica Whyman.

A photograph of a play in performance. At the rear of the stage, a woman in a white wedding dress and a man in a black suit are embracing. There are strings of fairy lights and in the foreground the stage is covered with red petals.

Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · 2w ago

Bottom: EPILOGUE or DANCE? Theseus: DANCE! #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... A bit of a fast-forward, but here's the lovely general dancing - complete with giant moons - at the end of the @bridgetheatre.bsky.social Dream, 2019/2025. Not quite a bergomasque, but JOYOUS!

A photograph of a play in performance. A theatre in the round, with people standing in the big stage area with galleries all around. It's lit with coloured lights and haze, and people are dancing. There are fairy lights on the fronts of the galleries, and there are three enormous moon inflatables being bounced over the heads of the dancers.

Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · 3w ago

Thisbe: [dies]💔 #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... In the 2019/2025 @bridgetheatre.bsky.social Dream when Thisbe (Flute; Dominic Semwanga) asked the 'sisters 3' to mourn with her, Hippolyta (Susannah Fielding), Helena (Lily Simpkiss) & Hermia (Nina Cassells) joined in. Note light sabre.

A photograph of a play in performance. On a green-painted stage, with some of the audience visible, the legs of a man are visible; he's wearing trainers, blue trousers, and a purple sweatshirt. Another man, similarly dressed, is standing looking anguished, with a light sable under his left arm. A woman wearing a lacy strapless dress is holding his hands and looking at him intensely; two other women wearing lacy dresses are kneeling and looking upset.

Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · 3w ago

Thisbe: my lovely Pyramus, you can't be DEAD?💔 #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Flute as Thisbe (Priya Kalsi) with Helena (Tara Tijani) in the background, in the 2025-6 Headlong Dream in the Wanamaker, dir. Holly Race Roughan; a rather lovely Greek-ish design by Max Johns.

A photograph of a play in performance. On a white painted floor, with some white painted wall behind, a young woman with long dark hair is standing looking sad with her arms by her sides. She's wearing a mid calf dusky pink dress in heavy cotton or linen, with long sleeves. There's a big cream patterned border around the neckline and around the skirt, and cream braid bands on the lower part of the sleeves. The waist is cinched with a leather belt and she has a wreath of gold leaves in her hair. Behind her a young woman wearing a white dress with a white flower in her hair is sitting behind a white-covered banquet table.

Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · 3w ago

Demetrius/Lysander/Theseus: BANTER; Hippolyta: get on with it #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... A poster for a 1969 student production of Dream at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, NZ (my alma mater!). With the young Sam Neill (centre) as Theseus❤️

A poster for a theatre production: on a blue ground, a tree in black silhouette, with white/blue photographic images of people in the foreground. Text reads: The University of Canterbury Drama Society presents William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream produced by Ngaio Marsh with Elric Hooper as Puck, Ngaio Marsh Theatre, booking at Hays, June 14-July 5

Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · 3w ago

Bottom as Pyramus: die die die die die I am DEAD #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Bottom as Pyramus (Geoffrey Hutchings) preparing to stab himself @the-rsc.bsky.social 1981, dir. Ron Daniels des. Maria Björnson. Modern productions often favour a light sabre.

A photograph of a play in performance. A man wearing brightly coloured Victorian pantomime style classical dress is kneeling in front of improvised footlights, waving a sword. The set is an elaborate nineteenth century drawing room; he's being watched by three women, all wearing big white dresses with crinolines, and three men wearing similarly formal dress.

Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · 3w ago

Bottom: what have we here? oh NO!! #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Molly Hewitt-Richards as Snug as the Lion and Emmanuel Akwafo as Bottom as Pyramus and Hilson Agbangbe as Starveling as Moonshine @bridgetheatre.bsky.social 2025

A photograph of a character in a play. A woman wearing black trousers and a baggy purple sweatshirt; she's making roaring gestures and wearing a furry hat shaped like a lion

A photograph of a play in performance. A man wearing a purple sweatshirt and beanie is sitting on the stage, with his back to the camera. Another similarly dressed young man is shining a torch in his face. Off to one side there's a small animatronic dog and a mini Christmas tree.

Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · 3w ago

WELL ROARED, LION; WELL SHONE, MOON 🦁❤️🌛 #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Two particularly guileless moons: Jack Humphrey with Headlong in the Wanamaker last winter, and Boni Adeliyi in the current @the-rsc.bsky.social / Unicorn family production

A photograph of a character in a play. A man wearing a long blue velvet robe, with silver stars, and white gloves. He has a silver crescent moon stuck to the side of his head, a lantern in his left hand, and a stuffed toy dog under his right arm. He is speaking with great commitment and intensity. A woman is visible under his left arm, sitting behind him and looking a bit worried. There's a painted background of trees.

A photograph of a character in a ply. A person wearing blue boots, blue trousers, a big blue overskirt, and a white ruff, with a straw hat tied under the chin with a blue ribbon. They're holding a white branch, a white lantern, and there's a little toy down on wheels beside them.

Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · 3w ago

Look there's my 2023 edition of Romeo and Juliet (well, it's my new introduction) up there in the left hand corner😎

@cambridgebookshop.bsky.social · 3w ago

All the world's a stage! 🎭 All of Cambridge certainly is, as today kicks off the 2026 Cambridge Shakespeare Festival. 🙌 To make the most of our discounts, or to not make the most of our discounts? That is the question as we have buy one get one half price on all our Shakespeare plays. 🤩

A window display for Cambridge University Press Bookshop and a poster for The Cambridge Shakespeare Festival 2026. The poster shows a face and advertises the festival. Various books are arranged on shelves, with reflections of bicycles and a historic building visible in the glass.

Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · 3w ago

Starveling: I am the Man in the Moon please listen #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... David Hobbs as Starveling as Moonshine in the 1999 @the-rsc.bsky.social Dream, dir. Michael Boyd, des. Tom Piper. Lovely persistent Moonshine, with his wee dog. (Have never seen a real dog - Crab 2.0?!)

A photograph of a character in ha ply. A man wearing white Elizabethan-style breeches and doublet, with a little ruff and a skull cap. He is standing in the middle of a blue-lit stage, speaking. In his left hand he is holding up a broomstick with a blue balloon, lit from within, tied to the handle. In his right hand he is holding the red leash of a stuffed toy dog on wheels. He looks very earnest.

Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · 3w ago

Oh Sam Neill. One of the good guys... A mighty tōtara has fallen. I don't know if he ever played Antony - I'd have loved to see it - but, 'His face was as the heav'ns, and therein stuck A sun and moon, which kept their course and lighted The little O o'th' earth'.

Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · 4w ago

Snug: I am #NotALion and I am ADORABLE ❤️🦁🚫 #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Jamal Franklin as Snug as a particularly adorable (cowardly) Lion in the current Globe Dream, with an audience volunteer (oh yes) as Starveling as the Moon. (Also as Snug & the sweetest Cobweb.) GO.

A photograph of a play in performance. In the middle of the stage, a person wearing a silver hooded coat with enormous pleated silver wings, pulled out to make a circle around them, is standing and reading something. On their left, a person wearing a gold fringed skirt over jeans and t-shirt, with furry gloves and a furry lion's head and mane, is helping to hold up the moon.

The same actor wearing a stripy t-shirt and little hat with a knitted gilet holding a clipboard, standing in the middle of the audience. Everyone is smiling.

The same actor dressed as a fairy. He's wearing sparkly green frills, with a bit of snakeskin, boots, blue silk kneepads, lots of flowers in his hair and on his costume, and a bit of green eyeshadow. He has a beard. He's sitting on the base of a green marble fountain.

Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · 4w ago

Theseus: the best actors are still only shadows... #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Hippolyta thinks it's SILLY; Theseus says that theatre needs the audience to imagine too. Hedydd Dylan in the Headlong Dream in the Wanamaker last winter; Michael Marcus as Theseus, Tiwa Lade as Hermia.

A photograph of a play in performance. Three people behind a table covered with a white cloth as if at a banquet. On the left, a man is sitting wearing a white shirt, collar undone, black tie undone; one the right, a young woman wearing a white wedding dress is also sitting. In the middle, a woman with dark hair in an elegant bun is standing up; she's also wearing a white wedding dress, with a white gauze drapery over her arms. She's speaking, leaning on the table. There's a painted background of trees.

Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · 4w ago

Pyramus/Thisbe: kissing the wall's hole😳 #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Extremely (w)holesome Pyramus (Emmy Stonelake) & Thisbe (Shahin Rezvani), with Quince (Scout Worsley) as the wall, in the current @the-rsc.bsky.social family version of Dream❤️ dir. Rachel Bagshaw & Robin Belfield

A photograph of a play in performance. On the left, a person wearing an orange jump suit and an orange helmet, with a cloak and a breastplate with P on the front; they have a wooden sword in their hand. In the middle, a person standing side on, wearing a green hat, pretending to be a wall. On the right, another person wearing a pink dress and a pink medieval-style pointy hat, with long blonde fake plaits. Another person is standing in the background.

Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · 4w ago

The wall's stones, now with working link #MoonMad 🙄🙄 www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo...

Flute/Thisbe: I have often kissed the wall’s stones with my lovely cherry lips! (5.1.181-190) #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare | Slow ShakespeareFaculty of English

english.cam.ac.uk

Hester L-J@starcrossed2018.bsky.social · 4w ago

The wall's stones🙄 #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... One of the more uncompromising representations of the Wall and his stones @the-rsc.bsky.social 2005, dir. Greg Doran. Flute as Thisbe (Jamie Ballard), Bottom as Pyramus (Malcolm Storry) and David Rogers as Snout as the Wall...

A photograph of a play in performance. A man wearing a long wig and a classical style tunic, with red spots of rouge on his cheeks, is kneeling on the left; another man wearing a short classical style tunic under a breastplate, wearing a very obvious wig is similarly kneeling; he too has rouge on his cheeks. In the middle, visible from the chest down, is a third man with bare legs painted with whitewash, with a basket over his upper half (only partly visible) wearing old-fashioned red underpants. Everyone looks a bit tense.

Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · 4w ago

Pyramus: love your work, Wall! #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... The perfect Victorian Dream, des. Maria Björnson, @the-rsc.bsky.social 1981, complete with enormous crinolined wedding dresses. Bottom (Geoffrey Hutchings), Flute (James Fleet) and Peter Ellis as Snout the Wall.

A photograph of a play in performance. A man wearing elaborate Roman-style costume, a man dressed as a woman wearing a fancy crinoline, and a man dressed as a wall in the middle, holding his fingers out to make a chink.

A photograph of a play in performance. The man in classical costume from the previous image, in the middle of an elaborate Victorian style drawing room. The onstage audience includes three women in enormous white crinoline dresses.

Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · 4w ago

Snout: I AM THE WALL 🧱 #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... A fairly minimalist but very committed wall in the DASH Arts / @the-rsc.bsky.social Dream dir. Tim Supple, 2006 - and a maximalist, stoic one @the-rsc.bsky.social 1999, dir. Michael Boyd des. Tom Piper.

A photograph of a play in performance. A man wearing a white sarong, his upper body painted white, with a stick across his shoulders; there are two people, one at either end of the stick, as if listening through a tube.

A photograph of a play in performance. In the middle, a man standing in the middle of what looks like a brick chimney, which comes up to his waist. On the left, a man kneeling down, looking intense, on the right, a man wearing an orange dress listening at the wall.

Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · last mo.

Prologue: here is the Lion and this is what's going to happen👀 #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Snug as Lion (Sarah Finigan) at the Globe, 2023; Snug as Lion (Kaireece Denton) @the-rsc.bsky.social this summer (L for Lion and also perhaps a little L-plate❤️). Well roared, Lion.

A photograph of a character in a play. A woman wearing a short fur shirt an da white top, with a lion mask on top of a brown hat. She is wearing glasses and snarling a bit uncertainly.

A photograph of a character in a play. A person wearing pale blue boots over pale yellow trousers, with a yellow doublet and a yellow ruff; the doublet has a capital letter L on the front. They're wearing a small lion mask, yellow with a fringe for the mane, and crouching slightly on a blue lit stage.

Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · last mo.

Introducing Pyramus & Thisbe!❤️ #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... Introductions in the 1999 @the-rsc.bsky.social dir. Michael Boyd; interpretive dance @bridgetheatre.bsky.social 2019 (leading to one of my most favourite interpolations ever, Oliver Chris as Theseus: 'oh, it's IMMERSIVE')

A photograph of a play in performance. A play is being watched by the onstage audience. The characters include a man standing inside what looks like a brick wall, a man with a balloon on a stick and a toy dog under his arm, and a man in a long orange frock.

A photograph of a play in performance. 5 young people wearing dark trousers and matching purpose sweatshirts are dancing with their arms outstretched.

Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · last mo.

Theseus: that prologue was a hot mess #MoonMad www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo... An Edwardian wedding: Theseus (David Strathairn) & Hippolyta (Sophie Marceau) & the lovers (Demetrius: Christian Bale; Helena: Calista Flockhart; Lysander: Dominic West; Hermia: Anna Friel) dir. Michael Hoffman 1999

A still from a film. Half length, an older man wearing white tie and tails, and a woman wearing an Edwardian-style cream silk and lace wedding dress, with lace sleeves and a high lace collar, are smiling and raising their champagne glasses to something out of shot to the right.

Another still from the same film. Two young men, both wearing white tie and tails, and two young women, wearing white lace Edwardian style wedding cresses, are sitting behind a banquet table with flowers, glasses etc. They are all smiling and talking to each other intimately.