Film-maker Jack Jewers has an unusual picture of Shakespeare on the bookshelf of his Finsbury Park home.
The six inch-high portrait of the Bard, encased in Perspex, has been into space attached to a high altitude weather balloon, and returned back to earth.
Captured by a tiny Go-Pro, the stunt - with a voiceover by former Doctor Who Tom Baker - was part of a series of short films to mark the 400th anniversary of the First Folio; the first printed edition of Shakespeare's collected plays.
Mr William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies was compiled from contemporary playscripts seven years after his death by friends John Heminges and Henry Condell, and includes plays such as The Tempest and Twelfth Night which had never been published before.
Jewers' six Folio 400 short films premiere at St Martin in the Fields on Wednesday (November 8) exactly four centuries after the book was published. They reimagine Shakespeare speeches such as 'All The World's A Stage,' and 'Our Revels Now Have Ended,' alongside a love sonnet narrated by broadcaster Cerys Matthews.
"I wanted the films to say something about the world today, and present excerpts from Shakespeare in a way that's interesting," said Lewers.
"I was searching around for the best visual metaphor for Shakespeare being the World's playwright, he wrote in English, but his language belongs to the world. I liked the idea of Shakespeare literally on top of the world and a group of scientists and clever people helped me to make it happen. When you send something up to the stratosphere, you have to be sure it's going to come down safely. It survived and it's now on my bookshelf."
Eager to show why Shakespeare remains relevant 400 years on, the BAFTA nominated director has set the texts to images of recent political protests, the European refugee crisis, and powerful images of Ukrainians standing in front of bombed out buildings.
They are accompanied by the 'band of brothers' St Crispin's Day speech from Henry V narrated by actor Eliza Butterworth.
"That speech is usually a battle cry, but it is also a call to courage, so we shot it in Kyiv with volunteers standing in front of bombed out buildings that they knew, and it became about the courage of civilians, the unimaginable hardship the Ukrainian people go through every day, and the fact that not all battles are fought at the front."
The space film is set to the Lovers and Madmen speech from A Midsummer Nights' Dream narrated by Baker.
"He was amazing, I didn't expect him to say yes because he's very much retired, but he said he would love to do it. He has a little studio at home so we did it remotely. He might have played a Time Lord, but technology wasn't his strong point, and it took a while to make it work, but then there was his velvety voice. He was a complete gentleman very charming and a national treasure."
One film recalls the loneliness of Lockdown and joy of reconciliation, while another splices together footage shot on rescue boats in the Med and features Yasin Morad, an actor who was himself was a refugee.
"These are stories of our time. I wanted them to be poignant, but also to offer a sense of hope. It ends with a note of radical optimism, the image of Shakespeare floating above the earth shows that while we have this imagination, this human inventiveness, there is hope for us all."
Guest speakers at St Martin-in-the-Fields event include Gemma Whelan (Game of Thrones) Lindsay Duncan (Rome, Mansfield Park) Fra Fee (Les Miserables, Cabaret)
Eliza Butterworth (The Last Kingdom) Melanie Marshall (Alice in Wonderland) and Jamie Parker (Becoming Elizabeth, The History Boys)
The six films are part of the Folio 400 celebrations and will be available to watch free online from November 8.
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