Dench donates Shakespeare In Love playhouse set to theatre group

A theatre set handed to the British Shakespeare Company by actress Dame Judi Dench is to be turned into a real playhouse.

Dench offered the oak-timbered set, modelled on London's 16th century Rose Theatre for 1998 movie Shakespeare In Love, to the troupe after she won an Oscar for portraying Queen Elizabeth I in the romantic comedy.

The set, a gift to Shakespeare superfan Dench, is currently in storage, but is set to become part of a real theatre venue in the north of England.

British Shakespeare Company artistic director Robert Williamson says he hopes to turn the set into "a living history centre".

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