Until I know this sure uncertainty, I’ll entertain the offered fallacy. And next, a Shakespeare play I knew nothing about until now – in fact, I forgot all about The Comedy of Errors and was ready to leap straight into Love’s Labour’s Lost, until I pulled out my trusty Oxford Shakespeare where it was. The … More Shakespeare Saturday: The Comedy of Errors
Bloody thou art, bloody will be thy end. If Shakespeare had stopped after Titus Andronicus, he’d probably be like Christopher Marlowe or (more accurately) John Webster – of his plays, maybe Taming of the Shrew and Titus Andronicus would have survived, and we might know that he also probably wrote something about Henry VI, but … More Shakespeare Saturday: Richard III
When will this fearful slumber have an end? Titus Andronicus is, literally and figuratively, a horror show. By its content, it is a fairly typical Elizabethan/Jacobean revenge tragedy, full of murder, madness, cannibalism, rape, blood, severed heads, severed… you get the idea. If 1 Henry VI was for a long time considered not to have … More Shakeare Saturday: Titus Andronicus
Fight till the last gasp. After the end, the beginning. There seems to be little dispute over the fact that 1 Henry VI was written last of the Contention. It is in that sense like one of those Hollywood prequels, chronicling the events that led to the War of the Roses – the death of … More Shakespeare Saturday: Henry VI, Part 1
The sands are numbered that makes up my life. Here I must stay, and here my life must end. In the beginning of 3 Henry VI, the dust has not settled – in fact, this is where the chaos truly begins to rule. This is a play about revenge and changing fortunes and brothers turning … More Shakespeare Saturday: Henry VI, Part 3
God forbid any malice should prevail/That faultless may condemn a noble man. With Henry VI I’m venturing into unknown territories. The only one of Shakespeare’s histories I’m previously familiar with is Richard III, while the Henries have been just, well, a whole lot of Henries. As luck should have it, all three Henry VI plays … More Shakespeare Saturday: Henry VI, Part 2
If I be waspish, best beware my sting. I confess: The Taming of the Shrew is probably my least favourite of Shakespeare’s comedies. In fact, it probably hovers pretty near the bottom in my overall order of preference. Strangely enough, it is my earliest Shakespeare memory – I must have been in primary school when … More Shakespeare Saturday: The Taming of the Shrew
O heaven! were man but constant, he were perfect. I’m going to read (and – in the spirit of full disclosure – watch on DVD) all the plays in chronological order, and post every Saturday in this category. The chronology I’m using is the Wells-Taylor one, which states Two Gentlemen of Verona as Shakespeare’s first … More Shakespeare Saturday: Two Gentlemen of Verona
This being the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, Oxford too is hosting a festival, organised by a consortium of local institutions like the university, Bodleian Libraries, the OUP, Blackwell’s and a number of local arts organisations and festivals. Weston Library, one of my favourite spaces in Oxford, has an exhibition called Shakespeare’s Dead and the … More Shakespeare Oxford 2016
I read fom somewhere that two years ago, when the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse was opened, Eileen Atkins in character as Ellen Terry spoke the first words of Shakespeare on its stage. She did another run of this play, written by herself and based on the Shakespeare lectures Terry started giving after her acting career has … More On theatregoing
Shakespeare for absolute beginners 