Drama students summon Shakespeare on campus in special videos

The power and relevance of Shakespeare, 400 years after his death, has been captured in this series of striking and creative performances by De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) students.

This weekend, the world will mark four centuries since the Bard’s death, with a series of performances, spectacular events and celebrations.

His plays and poetry are still regularly performed across the globe, with numerous new interpretations of his words put on stage every year.

To try and capture the endless appeal of Shakespeare’s writing, we asked five students on the Drama Studies BA course at DMU to perform speeches from some of his most famous plays, in apt settings around the DMU campus.

Here’s Chris Howitt as Mark Antony in Julius Caesar, on the steps of our Hawthorn Building:

While Thomas Carter took on Richard, Duke of Gloucester from Richard III, in our Heritage Centre, in front of the two remaining arches of Leicester’s Church of the Annunciation – famous for being where the battle-scarred corpse of Richard III was put on public display after his death at Bosworth:

Triona Brading took a walk in front of the Magazine, near the Hugh Aston Building, portraying the Chorus in Henry V:

Here’s Alice Stubbs as Jaques in As You Like It, in one of the former court rooms within Leicester Castle:

And finally, Scott Davison grabbed attention inside our new, recently-opened Food Village, playing Caliban in The Tempest: