Theatre and Performance

How can fiction impact real reputations, and real legacies? How can fictional characters influence our understanding of politicians and political institutions? Creator and author of House of Cards, Michael Dobbs, talks to Rana Mitter about his experience of treading the line between fact and fiction.

Ivor Gurney (1890 - 1937) was both a poet and a composer. In this event celebrating National Poetry Day, talk, poetry readings and song combine in a sequence exploring Gurney's responses to literature, landscape, history, memory and the First World War.

The British Academy hosted the UK’s public premiere of Sir Robert Hart: For China and the World. The film explores the forgotten history of Britain in China from the 1850s to the early 1900s through the life of Sir Robert Hart, Inspector General of China’s Imperial Maritime Customs from 1863 to 1911. Search The British Academy archives for a diverse selection of informative lectures by a broad range of speakers.

Thomas Cromwell remains one of the most controversial characters of the Tudor age. Just as in his own time, he makes enthusiastic friends and bitter enemies. Author Hilary Mantel, actor Ben Miles, and historian Diarmaid MacCulloch explored and discussed this elusive but important Tudor. Search The British Academy archives for a diverse selection of informative lectures by a broad range of speakers.

British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow Kirsty Sedgman introduces a new network on 'Theatre & Fandom' and explains why the theatre industry needs to start taking their most invested audience members seriously.

Professor Jonathan Bate FBA (University of Oxford) and Professor James Shapiro (Columbia University) - with the practical help of Nick Bagnall, director of the Globe's 'Harry the Sixth' productions, and two of its cast members - considered the different ways that Shakespeare’s characters can be explored by actors and academics, how the insights of each can be valuable to the other – and what is different in the British and American approaches to Shakespeare. Search The British Academy archives for a diverse selection of informative lectures by a broad range of speakers.