Wives murdering husbands, parents abandoning newborn babies and teenagers falling helplessly in love against their family’s wishes. With such arresting, universal themes it is no wonder William Shakespeare – the bard from middle England – has made such an impact all over the world. So confident in his identity, the writer is capable of transporting and transforming himself through time and space with the ability to stay fresh and true.

The British council estimates that over half the world’s school children study the bard’s plays, and Iraq is another far-flung destination where they are oft read. Fusing the country’s rich traditions of poetry, music and ritual with the playwright’s famous text, Baghdad’s Iraqi Theatre Company brings a refreshingly different version of Romeo and Juliet to Shakespeare’s hometown of Stratford.

But they're just one troupe bringing the bard's works to life with a cultural twist. From April 23rd to September 9th in venues all over the UK – including the original Globe Theatre on the south bank of the River Thames – The World Shakespeare Festival will see companies from 35 countries performing Shakespeare's works in 37 languages. These include Henry IV, Part Two in Argentine Spanish, Antony and Cleopatra in Turkish and Coriolanus in Japanese.

"Over the last fifty or sixty years, the continent has witnessed a series of freedom fighters turned democratically elected presidents, turned despotic rulers, who have pulled all the power to themselves in one party states,” comments Doran. “The fear of that tyranny has led to multiple military coups, assassinations and civil wars which continue to ravage the continent – Caesar could be Amin or Bokassa, Mobutu or Mugabe.”

Shakespeare’s legendary dramatic output is celebrated all summer long across the UK, from Edinburgh to South Wales, London and, of course, Stratford-upon-Avon. Venues including The Roundhouse, The Barbican and the National Theatre, as well as the new architecturally acclaimed theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon, all providing atmospheric platforms for that expert intermingling of wit and philosophy that is a Shakespearian drama.

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