Fallout 76 players hold a Shakespearean sonnet festival

The bombs may have fallen and turned the surface of the earth into a blasted hellscape full of mutants and dangerous radiation, but the bard remains. Nuclear MMORPG Fallout 76, as we’ve already seen, has a lively contingent of Shakespeare fans active in its community, and last week they staged a reading of some of ol’ Will’s best sonnets.

“While Shakespeare may not have written about our present condition – living in the wasteland and the nuclear apocalypse, fighting every day for survival with threats of human and nature kind – it is these sonnets that recapture a glimpse of our humanity,” host Northern Harvest said to open the festival, which was held in Fallout Five-0’s Swan Theatre in New Gad.

The festival featured readings of 14 of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets, and readings were both performed live on PlayStation 4 and recorded in advance on both Xbox and PC. These pre-recorded readings were played on holotapes distributed to the audience for playback on their PipBoys. Northern Harvest kicked things off with a live reading of Sonnet 129, ‘Th’expense of spirit in a waste of shame.’

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