THERE are no documents to prove on which day William Shakespeare was born, but it is known he was baptised at Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon on April 26, 1564.

From this, romantics surmised he was born on April 23, St George’s Day, and it is now the day universally recognised as his birthday.

So yesterday, they celebrated his 444th birthday with a 24-hour theatrical event with abridged versions of his plays staged in 35 countries across the world, all starting at 7pm local time.

Shakespeare 24 began in New Zealand and ended 24 hours later in Hawaii while in Britain, Liverpool was the centre of events.

The Liverpool Culture Company had financially backed the 24-hour event created by the Shakespeare Schools Festival, which had two plays staged at the Liverpool Playhouse.

The Archbishop Beck Catholic High School represented the city with a unique version of Macbeth using a cast of just five performers.

They had been selected from a Shakespeare Youth Festival at Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts.

So keen were they to appear that Jenny Kelly, as Lady Macbeth, insisted on going on despite almost losing her voice with laryngitis.

After their 45 minute version it was the turn of the National Youth Theatre who premiered their 60 minute version of one of Shakespeare’s “problem” plays, Measure for Measure.

This was billed as a world premiere as the adaptation had been written by best-selling author Jamila Gavin, whose novel Coram Boy was adapted into a sell-out play. She was in the audience for last night’s production.

It took the Shakespeare Schools Festival 18 months to put together the worldwide event which involved 60 youth groups from 35 countries.

* TO SEE video footage from the Shakespeare 24 event ,log onto our website www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk