Ali Smith, ‘Summer’ (Hamish Hamilton)
August 16, 2020
In one of Ali Smith’s trademark dizzying verbal association games, an unnamed character in Summer explains that a load-bearing stone is often called a ‘summer’; at which another character, Grace, muses on why we load summer with so many expectations, much more than the other seasons. It’s framed as a time of renewal, of rest, …
Screening The Royal Shakespeare Company: A Critical History, by John Wyver (Bloomsbury, 2019)
July 16, 2019
The Royal Shakespeare Company’s relationship with film stretches back to the very earliest days of that medium, with Frank Benson’s two-reel film of Richard III – now a staple of university Shakespeare On Film courses – shot on stage at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon; meanwhile, the company’s ongoing commitment to broadcasting its main …
William Shakespeare: A Very Short Introduction by Stanley Wells
April 5, 2015
This month, Oxford University Press publishes William Shakespeare: A Very Short Introduction by one of the most esteemed living authors on Shakespeare, Stanley Wells. Wells, in addition to being one of our finest textual scholars, has devoted much of the last decade to a series of books aimed at a popular market, expanding his role …
A Year of Shakespeare, eds. Paul Edmondson, Paul Prescott & Erin Sullivan
May 20, 2013
A Year of Shakespeare: Re-living the World Shakespeare Festival is now out at a good Shakespeare-related bookshop near you, and as Shakespeare’s Globe welcomes back some of the standout productions from last year’s World Shakespeare Festival, it seems timely to flag up the volume that offers an overview of all seventy-four productions, events and films …
Shakespeare and the Making of Theatre
January 3, 2013
The blog has been quiet for a while, which is the unfortunate result of a dearth of new early modern theatre in the East Midlands and a very busy December at work. Coming up later in 2013 will be reviews of new shows by Propeller, the RSC, Shakespeare’s Globe, Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory and …
Performing Early Modern Drama Today (Pascale Aebischer and Kathryn Prince)
November 27, 2012
This post is a prelude to a full review of Pascale Aebischer and Kathryn Prince’s new edited collection, Performing Early Modern Drama Today (Cambridge, 2012), which is forthcoming in a future issue of Cahiers Elisabethains. I trump the book on this blog because it is, I will be arguing, one of the most important collections …
Coriolanus: The Shooting Script
February 19, 2012
Writing about web page http://www.amazon.co.uk/Coriolanus-Shooting-Script-Newmarket/dp/006220257X I’ve just been sent a copy of Coriolanus: The Shooting Script by the good folks at Harper Collins. This is part of an ongoing series of carefully packaged and attractive scripts, offering the film text along with insights from the filmmakers, and it’s a fascinating read after seeing the film. …
Hunting Folios: Eric Rasmussen’s “The Shakespeare Thefts”
October 30, 2011
Title: The Shakespeare Thefts: In Search of the First Folios Author: Eric Rasmussen ISBN: 0230109411 Rating: Not rated One of the relatively unknown problems in scholarly research is – what do you do with the stories? Inevitably, as we research, we turn up anecdotes, gossip, juicy titbits which are simply inappropriate to go in the …
Shakespeare on Film: An Encyclopedia by Marcus Pitcaithly
September 25, 2011
Writing about web page http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shakespeare-Film-Encyclopedia-Marcus-Pitcaithly/dp/0955686423/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1316959824&sr=8-3 In a year when Shakespearean film is very much back in the mainstream, Marcus Pitcaithly’s new volume, Shakespeare on Film: An Encyclopedia is especially timely. Pitcaithly’s assiduous volume is the most comprehensive survey of Shakespearean film yet undertaken. Running from Beerbohm Tree’s 1889 King John to Marianne Elliott’s 2009 All’s …
Find, follow, join us
