Shakespeare

Actually, All of Shakespeare's Plays are About Race

by Daniel Pollack-Pelzner

A new collection of essays argues that Shakespeare's works helped Renaissance Europeans to invent the category of "whiteness," and for later generations to refine and contest its meaning. 

The Roots of the Story of "The Northman"

Neil Price describes the work of being a historical consultant on the new Icelandic epic, including the story's common roots with "Hamlet" and the realities of Viking combat. 

Shakespeare Wrote His Best Works During a Plague

by Daniel Pollack-Peltzner

The most heartening lesson from Shakespeare’s era is that the playhouses will likely survive and reopen, again and again. What plays to perform when they do?

England’s Richard III as Murderous, Royal Thug

by Bruce Chadwick

William Shakespeare’s bone-chilling play Richard III portrays England’s deformed monarch as a murderous thug, one of the great villains of world history.

1600s Verona: Romeo, Juliet, and A Romantic Tragedy for the Ages

by Bruce Chadwick

This Romeo and Juliet is a triumph.

Can You Ever Tame the Shrew? Is She Really the Shrew?

by Bruce Chadwick

This Taming of the Shrew  is a madcap romp through history, literature and the woods. It is a lot of fun.

Delightful but Dizzying Romp as the 17th Century Meets the 1950s

by Bruce Chadwick

There is merriment galore in this new production of William Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night, that just opened at the Shakespeare & Co. theater in Lenox, Massachusetts in the Berkshires.

Shakespeare’s London Home Where He Wrote ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Identified by Historian

Theater historian Geoffrey Marsh spent a decade meticulously researching the home of the English dramatist and poet by cross-referencing official records to pinpoint where exactly Shakespeare lived during the 1590s.

What Shakespeare’s Wife Could Tell Us

by Katherine West Scheil

But what do we know about her?

Bloody Shakespeare

by Bruce Chadwick

"Titus Andronicus," a creepy, blood-soaked play that is rarely staged (no wonder), opened last weekend at the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey at Drew University.

A New Macbeth Stumbles to the Top

by Bruce Chadwick

This play's Lady Macbeth looks and acts more like June Cleaver from the old "Leave It to Beaver" television series. She is not plotting treason and murder, but Tuesday’s Tupperware party.

Plagiarism Software Unveils a New Source for 11 of Shakespeare’s Plays

What do the noble mastiff, the lowly cur and the trundle-tail have in common besides being terms for dogs?

The Shameful Attack on the New York Public Theater Production of “Julius Caesar”

by Ed Simon

What the rightwing is really upset about is how Shakespeare helps us see the tyrant for what he is.

Infographic of the Week: Shakespeare and performance from the 16th century to today

Visualizing Shakespeare's plays through the ages.

The Wacky World of William Shakespeare (abridged, revised, edited, whew!)

by Bruce Chadwick

Have a night of blistering fun and go see a play by William Shakespeare. Uh oh. Really? Well, yes, really.

‘To Be or Not to Be’: Shakespeare First Edition Book Goes on Tour

by Bruce Chadwick

400 years later, all the world is still a stage.

Confirmation that Shakespeare was Shakespeare

The finding is based on a family coat of arms he had a hand in protecting.

Suffragettes, Shakespeare and Summertime

by Bruce Chadwick

Outdoor park theaters, movies and concerts are one of the joys of American life in the summertime.

Radar scan of Shakespeare's grave confirms skull apparently missing

Four hundred years after his death and burial at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Stratford-upon-Avon, central England, researchers were allowed to scan the grave of England's greatest playwright with ground-penetrating radar.

The Countess Who Bested Shakespeare

by Chris Laoutaris

And the reason, not known until now, that Shakespeare’s patron sided with her.