Shakespeare in Space to Mark the 400th Anniversary of his First Collection

The portrait of the globally renowned British playwright William Shakespeare was sent into space to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the release of his single-volume edition, "First Folio" in 1623.

This information is reported by CNN.

According to reports, Shakespeare's portrait, along with the text of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," was specially attached to a weather balloon with a camera and GPS tracker and sent straight into the upper layers of Earth's atmosphere.

This performance became part of the short film "Lovers and Lunatics" by renowned British director Jack Jewers.

"I had this image in my head: a portrait of Shakespeare – the universal playwright, whose work I truly believe speaks to everyone – backgrounded by space, with earth’s curvature in the background. What more fitting way to celebrate the universality of our human experience, and how it has been captured for 400 years by these wonderful words, than that?" - said the director.

In a series of six short films, Jack Jewers attempts to reinterpret six of the most popular speeches and poems by the British playwright in the context of modern reality. In his films, the director also touches on themes of Russia's war in Ukraine, the European migrant crisis, and political protests.

It is worth noting that the "First Folio" is the first collection of William Shakespeare's plays, which was initially published under the title “Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories & Tragedies” seven years after his death. The collection consisted of 36 plays, including the globally famous work "Macbeth."

Earlier, it was reported that a 600-year-old oak board, considered part of the only surviving theatrical stage on which William Shakespeare once performed, was found in the British theater in Norfolk County.

Also, this summer, The Gaze reported on unique linocuts created by Ukrainian artist Olesya Dzhurayeva, which were sent to the moon as part of a joint project between Canadian artist Samuel Peralto and NASA - "Lunar Codex." The linocuts were created using Ukrainian black soil and reflected on the topic of the Russian-Ukrainian war.