A live-streaming reading group is performing all of Shakespeare’s plays in order

Let’s be honest, we don’t have much better to do at the moment, do we?

‘The Show Must Go Online’ is a digital project intended to try and get us through the current gloom by spending some time with the words of a man who knew a thing or two about plagues: Mr William Shakespeare. Led by classical actor and director Robert Myles, the group wants to bring The Bard’s words to life by reading them out loud at a time when conventional live performance is verboten. Professional actors and experienced amateurs are invited to sign up to do the reading, and the public can follow along on YouTube. 

At present, the group is weekly, with the first one running tonight at 7pm, including an introduction from noted Shakespearean Ben Crystal.

The play will be ‘The Two Gentlemen of Verona’, appropriate because it’s thought that the light comedy is Shakespeare’s first play and we do like a good chronological odyssey. We sincerely hope that if the series is still going by the time it’s done all 37 plays (more if you want to include the co-writes) then it’ll be reading ‘The Tempest’ in a much happier world.

Watch it here:

Do check out our currently inaccurate, hopefully soon to be more accurate Shakespeare in London page.