Stratford-upon-Avon and tourism go together like a doublet and hose. For the past 250 years hundreds of thousands of visitors have arrived each year to pay homage to its most famous son, William Shakespeare.
Little is known for sure about the Bard's life story as opposed to his life's work. One thing historians can be sure of is the whereabouts of the family home. A document records that his father, John Shakespeare, was hit with a fine in 1529 for having a pile of muck outside the house on Henley Street.
Stratford is still the kind of town where a fine awaits the careless or negligent. Recently a traffic warden ticketed a tourist coach, flinging the paperwork through its closing doors as it pulled away.
Perhaps the tourists on board had just visited Henley Street, Shakespeare's birthplace, one of five historic buildings in or near the town associated with the Shakespeare family, all run by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
If so, they would have experienced Life, Love and Legacy, the introductory exhibition and audiovisual experience that the trust unveiled in April.
Selling Shakespeare
Billed as "an immersive journey", it takes visitors through three rooms at the start of their visit, setting the scene for experiencing his actual birthplace, which is set alongside a well-tended garden.
On the journey, visitors glimpse cases of original objects, for example a lectern where his teacher might have schooled the young Shakespeare in Latin. These are integrated into theatrical settings and linked with an audiovisual show through the technique of "object theatre".
Spotlights pick out relevant objects during each short programme, starting with Shakespeare's childhood in Stratford, followed by finding fame and fortune on the stage in London. The final scene provides an overview of the Bard's immortality on stage and screen.
Patrick Stewart and Juliet Stevenson narrate the voiceover with actorly delivery. There are visual references to international productions and actors beyond the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), but the show is Anglo-centric. Surprisingly, there are no subtitles or summaries in other languages.
The star object of Life, Love and Legacy is the trust's copy of a first folio, a rare bound volume of "Mr William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories and Tragedies" published in 1623, seven years after his death.
The last time one sold it went for £2.5m. A spotlight falls on its open pages for a moment before the lights dim and automatic doors open - your cue to move on.
Visitors exit this introductory experience through the Hall of Fame, a corridor lined with portraits of actors in Shakespearean roles, Judi Dench and David Tennant among them. The voice of Patrick Stewart informs departing visitors that during the course of their visit to the playwright's birthplace, actors somewhere in the world have been performing Hamlet.
The wit and wordplay of Shakespeare is conveyed by two young costumed actors in a fresh and engaging way. Shakespeare Aloud perform double acts in the gardens during summer weekends, taking a scene from Hamlet, Macbeth or a comedy on my visit. They interact with the visitors as if they were part of the play, making it seem the most natural thing in the world to be transported to Verona or Elsinore.
Legendary development
Life, Love and Legacy seems rather plodding by comparison. It feels curiously dated as a format and its theatrical production values are hardly RSC. But it does work as a way of filtering the groundlings into smaller groups, something necessary as you move through the small rooms and up staircases in the terrace of Elizabethan houses where the young Shakespeare grew up.
Inside, vintage displays recount how in 1769 the theatre impresario David Garrick unlocked this treasure chest on the banks of the River Avon. He organised a three-day festival and kickstarted the Shakespeare tourist industry.
At one stage the American showman PT Barnum proposed to buy the family home and ship it brick by brick to the US - fortunately this Shakespearian Neverland was narrowly avoided.
Famous visitors form a literary who's who: John Keats, Sir Walter Scott, Mark Twain and Thomas Hardy. The canny custodian in the early 19th century, a Mrs Hornby, provided a diamond ring for them to etch their names in a window.
Mrs Hornby left in a huff in 1820 when the rent was increased. She moved across the street and set up shop. Selling Shakespeare today is as important as ever.
The tills of the trust's well-stocked shops were ringing merrily. When in May someone wanted to open Romeo and Juliet's Adult Boutique nearby, many objected to the Shakespeare-themed bawdy house, but to its credit, the trust said fair play.
Caroline Worthington is the director of the Florence Nightingale Museum, London
Little is known for sure about the Bard's life story as opposed to his life's work. One thing historians can be sure of is the whereabouts of the family home. A document records that his father, John Shakespeare, was hit with a fine in 1529 for having a pile of muck outside the house on Henley Street.
Stratford is still the kind of town where a fine awaits the careless or negligent. Recently a traffic warden ticketed a tourist coach, flinging the paperwork through its closing doors as it pulled away.
Perhaps the tourists on board had just visited Henley Street, Shakespeare's birthplace, one of five historic buildings in or near the town associated with the Shakespeare family, all run by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
If so, they would have experienced Life, Love and Legacy, the introductory exhibition and audiovisual experience that the trust unveiled in April.
Selling Shakespeare
Billed as "an immersive journey", it takes visitors through three rooms at the start of their visit, setting the scene for experiencing his actual birthplace, which is set alongside a well-tended garden.
On the journey, visitors glimpse cases of original objects, for example a lectern where his teacher might have schooled the young Shakespeare in Latin. These are integrated into theatrical settings and linked with an audiovisual show through the technique of "object theatre".
Spotlights pick out relevant objects during each short programme, starting with Shakespeare's childhood in Stratford, followed by finding fame and fortune on the stage in London. The final scene provides an overview of the Bard's immortality on stage and screen.
Patrick Stewart and Juliet Stevenson narrate the voiceover with actorly delivery. There are visual references to international productions and actors beyond the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), but the show is Anglo-centric. Surprisingly, there are no subtitles or summaries in other languages.
The star object of Life, Love and Legacy is the trust's copy of a first folio, a rare bound volume of "Mr William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories and Tragedies" published in 1623, seven years after his death.
The last time one sold it went for £2.5m. A spotlight falls on its open pages for a moment before the lights dim and automatic doors open - your cue to move on.
Visitors exit this introductory experience through the Hall of Fame, a corridor lined with portraits of actors in Shakespearean roles, Judi Dench and David Tennant among them. The voice of Patrick Stewart informs departing visitors that during the course of their visit to the playwright's birthplace, actors somewhere in the world have been performing Hamlet.
The wit and wordplay of Shakespeare is conveyed by two young costumed actors in a fresh and engaging way. Shakespeare Aloud perform double acts in the gardens during summer weekends, taking a scene from Hamlet, Macbeth or a comedy on my visit. They interact with the visitors as if they were part of the play, making it seem the most natural thing in the world to be transported to Verona or Elsinore.
Legendary development
Life, Love and Legacy seems rather plodding by comparison. It feels curiously dated as a format and its theatrical production values are hardly RSC. But it does work as a way of filtering the groundlings into smaller groups, something necessary as you move through the small rooms and up staircases in the terrace of Elizabethan houses where the young Shakespeare grew up.
Inside, vintage displays recount how in 1769 the theatre impresario David Garrick unlocked this treasure chest on the banks of the River Avon. He organised a three-day festival and kickstarted the Shakespeare tourist industry.
At one stage the American showman PT Barnum proposed to buy the family home and ship it brick by brick to the US - fortunately this Shakespearian Neverland was narrowly avoided.
Famous visitors form a literary who's who: John Keats, Sir Walter Scott, Mark Twain and Thomas Hardy. The canny custodian in the early 19th century, a Mrs Hornby, provided a diamond ring for them to etch their names in a window.
Mrs Hornby left in a huff in 1820 when the rent was increased. She moved across the street and set up shop. Selling Shakespeare today is as important as ever.
The tills of the trust's well-stocked shops were ringing merrily. When in May someone wanted to open Romeo and Juliet's Adult Boutique nearby, many objected to the Shakespeare-themed bawdy house, but to its credit, the trust said fair play.
Caroline Worthington is the director of the Florence Nightingale Museum, London
Project data
Cost: £500,000
Main funder: Advantage West Midlands £250,000
Exhibition design: Sarner
Cost: £500,000
Main funder: Advantage West Midlands £250,000
Exhibition design: Sarner
