Youths That Thunder

Two scholars present new research on Shakespeare, race and performance in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse as part of the Shakespeare and Race Festival 2026.

Dr Eli Cumings and Dr Lydia Valentine present new research in early modern race studies. Cumings examines a 1961 production of Macbeth staged in colonial Zimbabwe, considering how performance rewrites the past and imagines new futures. Valentine explores the racial significance of bastardy in The Winter's Tale, arguing that bastardy referred both to illegitimacy and racial mixing. The event runs for 1 hour 10 minutes and forms part of the Shakespeare and Race Festival 2026.