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If you enjoyed the 450th anniversary of William Shakespeare's birth in 2012, then rejoice – next year is the 400th anniversary of his death, and there's gonna be festivities. Shakespeare's Globe has announced today that it's celebrating in a very exciting way: for one weekend only – April 23-24 2016 – the banks of the Thames over a 2.5 mile walk between Westminster and Tower Bridge will play host to 37 large TV screens, each showing an original 10-minute film pertaining to one of Shakespeare's plays, filmed on the location that the play is set in. Basically the Thames is going to be turned into one big, awesome Shakespeare exhibit. Expect some big names in the mix for exhibition that's being dubbed 'The Complete Walk'. Entry, naturally, is free, but give yourself time to do it – 37 10-minute screens is over six hours of content, and you've only got two days to do it. Bardophiles: this is a once-in-a-lifetime event.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: 'Four hundred years after his death, Shakespeare is a titanic figure, whose work still resonates with people of all ages and backgrounds. That is an incredible feat and one that will be rightly celebrated across the world next year. London has a fantastic range of Shakespearean-inspired events lined up for 2016 and I am delighted to support The Complete Walk. It will give Londoners and visitors to the capital a wonderful opportunity to take in the Bard’s work in the city where some of his greatest stories were conceived.'
Dominic Dromgoole, artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe, said: 'Shakespeare spent half his life in London, wrote all his plays there, and presented them all beside the Thames…We think it is suitable and fitting that the huge range of his work should be celebrated 400 years after his death in a big free public event, utilising the very latest technology, along a public walkway beside the same dirty old river, so rich with history. The ability to make these films in so many different countries, and to show them in an equal number, will be a further celebration of Shakespeare’s astonishing reach into the world.'