The late romances, often simply called the romances, are a grouping of William Shakespeare's last plays, comprising Pericles, Prince of Tyre; Cymbeline; The Winter's Tale; and The Tempest. The Two Noble Kinsmen, of which Shakespeare was co-author, is sometimes also included in the grouping. The term "romances" was first used for these late works in Edward Dowden's Shakspere (1877). Later writers have generally been content to adopt Dowden's term.
Prospero is a fictional character and the protagonist of William Shakespeare's The Tempest.
Return to the Forbidden Planet is a jukebox musical by Bob Carlton based on the 1956 science fiction film Forbidden Planet, which, in turn, is loosely based on Shakespeare's play The Tempest. The show features a score of 1950s and 1960s rock and roll classics and dialogue largely adapted from well-known passages from Shakespeare.
Spondon is a ward of the city of Derby, in the ceremonial county of Derbyshire, England. Originally a small village, Spondon dates back to the Domesday Book and it became heavily industrialised in the 19th and early 20th centuries, with companies such as British Celanese.
Porthcurno is a small village covering a small valley and beach on the south coast of Cornwall, England in the United Kingdom. It is the main settlement in a civil and an ecclesiastical parish, both named St Levan, which comprise Porthcurno, diminutive St Levan itself, Trethewey and Treen.
Brownsea Open Air Theatre is an open-air Shakespearean theatre company based in Poole, Dorset that have performed large theatrical productions since 1964. Annually, performing a play from the extensive works of William Shakespeare for three weeks in July and August, the production is set on the National Trust's Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour with boats transporting patrons to the island from Poole Quay.
Haydn Gwynne was an English actress. She was nominated for the 1992 BAFTA TV Award for Best Light Entertainment Performance for the comedy series Drop the Dead Donkey (1990–1991), and won the 2009 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical for her role in the Broadway production of Billy Elliot the Musical. She was also a five-time Olivier Award nominee, winning her first posthumously in 2024. Her other television roles included Peak Practice (1999–2000), Merseybeat (2001–2002), and playing Camilla in The Windsors from 2016 until her death in 2023.
St Levan is a civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The parish is rural with a number of hamlets of varying size with Porthcurno probably being the best known. Hewn out of the cliff at Minack Point and overlooking the sea to the Logan Rock is the open-air Minack Theatre, the inspiration of Rowena Cade in the early 1930s.
Dame Harriet Mary Walter is a British actress. She has performed on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and received an Olivier Award, and nominations for a Tony Award, five Emmy Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2011, Walter was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to drama.
Michael Grandage CBE is a British theatre director and producer. He is currently artistic director of the Michael Grandage Company. From 2002 to 2012 he was artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse in London and from 2000 to 2005 he was artistic director of Sheffield Theatres.
Katharine Penelope Burdekin was a British novelist who wrote speculative fiction concerned with social and spiritual matters. She was the younger sister of Rowena Cade, creator of the Minack Theatre in Cornwall. Several of her novels have been described as feminist utopian/dystopian fiction. She also wrote under the name Kay Burdekin and under the pseudonym Murray Constantine. Daphne Patai unraveled "Murray Constantine's" true identity while doing research on utopian and dystopian fiction in the mid-1980s.
Phyllida Christian Lloyd, is an English film and theatre director and producer.
Cornwall's rugged landscape and scenery have been used by film and television companies as a backdrop for some of their productions.
Love Story is a 1944 British black-and-white romance film directed by Leslie Arliss and starring Margaret Lockwood, Stewart Granger, and Patricia Roc. Based on a short story by J. W. Drawbell, the film is about a concert pianist who, after learning that she is dying of heart failure, decides to spend her last days in Cornwall. While there, she meets a former RAF pilot who is going blind, and soon a romantic attraction forms. Released in the United States as A Lady Surrenders, this wartime melodrama produced by Gainsborough Pictures was filmed on location at the Minack Theatre in Porthcurno in Cornwall, England.
The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, probably written in 1610–1611, and thought to be one of the last plays that he wrote alone. After the first scene, which takes place on a ship at sea during a tempest, the rest of the story is set on a remote island, where Prospero, a wizard, lives with his daughter Miranda, and his two servants: Caliban, a savage monster figure, and Ariel, an airy spirit. The play contains music and songs that evoke the spirit of enchantment on the island. It explores many themes, including magic, betrayal, revenge, and family. In Act IV, a wedding masque serves as a play-within-a-play, and contributes spectacle, allegory, and elevated language.
Rowena Cade (1893–1983) was the creator of the Minack Theatre in Porthcurno, Cornwall, UK.
Surrey Opera is a semi-professional English opera company based in Croydon, providing opera in Surrey, Sussex and Kent. The company offers opportunity to emerging professional opera singers, providing the opportunity to work with professional directors, musicians, designers and the Surrey Opera Chorus. Alumni of Surrey Opera include known singers Peter Sidhom, Russell Smythe, Susan Gritton and David Soar. While opera forms the majority of its repertoire, the company also performs operettas, musicals and soirées.
Shakespeare in the Park is a term for outdoor festivals featuring productions of William Shakespeare's plays. The term originated with the New York Shakespeare Festival in New York City's Central Park, originally created by Joseph Papp. This concept has been adapted by many theatre companies, and over time, this name has expanded to encompass outdoor theatre productions of the playwright's works performed all over the world.
The Homestead is a nine-bedroom Georgian house in the conservation area of Spondon, Derby, England. It is Grade I listed.
Minack Theatre and view over Porthcurno Bay.
A view highlighting the gradient of the theatre
Minack Theatre
A 2012 Shakespeare production
From the air
