festival eye

Shakespeare is, as academics point out, very much our contemporary, and no more so than in Edinburgh. This year, the inherent modernity of his vision is celebrated in a multi-media Hamlet (soundtrack by The Smiths), a one-woman Lear and a rock 'n' roll As You Like It.

But only one production acknowledges what we've known all along: that for anticipating the Nineties, the Bard is up there with Nostradamus. In NW5 Theatre's No Royalties, Fergie and Di tell the story of their troubles by reading the love sonnets. "It's quite uncanny how the poems match the course of events, from courtship to betrayal," gushes George O'Gorman, the show's director. "They fit like a glove."

So what about "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day"? O'Gorman explains: "That's Fergie talking to Di in the South of France after the divorce, basically saying, 'we've got the money and we're free'. " Of course...