Judi Dench and Helena Bonham Carter Celebrate Shakespeare With King Charles

On Tuesday night, King Charles III and Queen Camilla hosted a star-studded event at Windsor Castle to honor another milestone during a celebratory year. 2023 marks the 400th year since the publication of the First Folio, a collection of works by William Shakespeare released seven years after his death that preserved plays for future generations. Events to mark the anniversary have been taking place all year, but this week, the librarians at Windsor Castle brought out their copy of the First and Second Folios so that a collection of British icons, including Dame Judi Dench, Dame Vanessa Redgrave, Helena Bonham Carter, Joely Richardson, and David Oyelowo could take a look. 

Also representing the royal family at the event were Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, and Birgitte, the Duchess of Gloucester. On social media, the palace shared footage of another highlight of the reception, a set of performances by Lucy Phelps, Ray Fearon, and Mark Quartley of the Royal Shakespeare Company. 

The actors have quite a bit of experience under their belts, but in the palace video, they admitted that it was a difficult performance. Fearon said that it was one of the “toughest audiences.” Phelps added, “When I saw the people who were on the guest list a creeping panic started to emerge.” 

Afterward, Phelps told Hello! that the real issue was the acting royalty in the audience, not necessarily the Windsors. “I thought it was going to be a bit like Strictly [Come Dancing]  with Judi Dench holding up a card with a number seven on it,” she said. “Just with all those actors in the room with us who have played those parts, that was the thing.”

In their post, the palace also pointed out the connection between the plays and the history of the royal family. “Well-known faces from @theRSC performed excerpts from some of the plays which would have been lost to us today had the folio not been published, and guests were able to view the First and Second Folios, which are preserved at Windsor,” it said. The post also explained a message left by one of the king’s ancestors, Charles I, who reigned from 1625 until he was executed in 1649. “Charles I read the Second Folio while imprisoned at Windsor Castle during the Civil War. Inside it he wrote ‘Dum Spiro Spero,’ Latin for ‘while I breathe, I hope.’” 

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