Bengal Club members and their guests attended a programme virtually to remember the bard who was born in April 1564. At the Bengal Club Library Virtual Event on Friday, titled ‘Why Do I Love Thee’, participants pondered over how 457 years later, Shakespeare continues to be taught, discussed and performed.

Anchored by Julie Banerjee Mehta, the evening saw Shormishtha Panja of Delhi University show the attendees some celebrated Shakespeare production posters, illustrations and paintings. Jadavpur University’s Dayita Majumder talked about how Shakespeare’s sonnets — published in 1609, which incidentally was the year of the plague — were a departure from the established form and structure of sonnets prevalent then. Diganta Chowdhury and Aneesha Seth sang the Willow Song from Othello, while Keshav Roy’s recorded performance from Othello and Hamlet riveted all. Club members showed off their Shakespearana as Sandip Chatterjee did a Shylock while Sumit Ray did the witches. Chaitali Moitra read from Twelfth Night and Monojit Dasgupta recorded the Seven Ages of Man. The evening ended with Sandip Chatterjee and Julie Mehta doing a scene from King Lear.