STAR LETTER THE BARD BEHIND BARS
Your article in the July issue [Vol 91 Issue 3] on the plays of William Shakespeare captured well the astonishing breadth the Bard’s impact on so many cultures over the last four centuries. Surely one of the most unusual productions of any Shakespeare play took place in 1815 at Dartmoor Prison.
The prison was constructed on the moors in 1806-09men were able to entertain themselves by organizing an orchestra and a theatre company. When Napoleon was defeated and the French prisoners repatriated, Dartmoor Prison was next filled with Americans captured during the war of 1812. The freed French prisoners left behind their excellent musical instruments, costumes and stage sets, and the Americans were quick to put them all to good use.
