There will be an opportunity to explore the sights, sounds, smells and even tastes of Shakespearean times during a multi-sensory tour next month.
The team at Shakespeare’s childhood home is partnering up with an award-winning artist and food historian to create a unique and immersive experience exploring a new side to the Shakespeare story.
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust is working with Tasha Marks from AVM Curiosities to curate the special evening.
Paul Taylor, head of museum and curatorial services at SBT, said: “As individuals, we experience all events in our lives through our senses. In fact, Shakespeare himself often described key emotional aspects of his works through their links to the senses.
“From exploring humanity itself in the Merchant of Venice to discussing the limitations of our senses and how they can play tricks in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, so to have the opportunity to spark our visitors’ senses in this new and immersive way whilst telling Shakespeare’s story is exciting.”
On arrival, guests will be welcomed with a signature cocktail, developed with ingredients to evoke feelings linked to Shakespeare’s work as they listen to a specially commissioned soundscape.
After taste and sound have been suitable explored it is on to the Birthplace itself where visitors will be treated to a unique tour where a series of scents in the rooms of the Birthplace will help conjure elements of the Shakespeare story.
Finally, guests will visit the Shakespeare Gift Shop where there will be tastings available of a host of curated local and regional products, all containing ingredients linked to the tour experience, including SBT’s own ‘Shakespeare Gin’ that is made from botanicals found in the Birthplace garden.
Organisers are staying tight-lipped on the specific sensory experiences on offer but have confirmed that they will all be linked to elements of Shakespeare’s life, the time he lived in history and what may have inspired him in his works.
This event follows a year of testing by the team at SBT of adding additional sensory elements to the experience at the Birthplace, including the development of scent boxes and a specially commissioned soundscape to test audience reactions. The results of this have been fed into this special event.
Multi-Sensory Shakespeare – An Evening of Sight, Sound, Taste and Scent take place on Thursday March 2 from 5pm to 8pm.
Tickets are £24 and can be purchased at www.shakespeare.org.uk
Source: One gentleman of aroma – Shakespeare’s Birthplace’s latest tour
