Inside Shakespeare's plays

She appears in four of Shakespeare’s plays and speaks the most lines of any of his female characters. Authors Charles O’Malley and Scott W. Stern shine the spotlight on Margaret of Anjou, Shakespeare’s most deliciously complex anti-heroine.

Shakespeare never attended university, but his plays have inspired generations of scholars. They’re also filled with learned characters. Sean Keilen shares what Shakespeare’s fictional intellectuals can teach us about the purpose of scholarship.

James I was a multifaceted ruler who led a fascinating life—and his romantic relationships with both men and women guided its often-turbulent course. Historian and author Gareth Russell reveals the untold story of his life and loves.

Why did early modern poetry and plays provoke the House Un-American Activities Committee? Marjorie Garber explores how Shakespeare became a magnet for suspicion during the Red Scare—and how he spoke to the moment.

A century after Shakespeare’s death, his words were in danger of being forgotten. Christine and Jonathan Hainsworth reveal how the Shakespeare Ladies Club rescued Shakespeare’s plays and made him the cultural icon he is today.

Is Shakespeare still Shakespeare even if every word is changed? Author and translator Daniel Hahn dives into the challenges and rewards of translating Shakespeare—exploring not only what is lost in translation, but also what is gained.

What happens when a Shakespeare play is made up in real time? The ISC creates fully unscripted performances from a single audience prompt—blending poetry, comedy, and spontaneity into a play that’s never the same twice.

Acclaimed actor Adjoa Andoh shares how “swinging the lens” in both Bridgerton and Shakespeare reveals new perspectives on power, identity, and belonging, inviting audiences to see familiar stories in radically different ways.

Womersley shares how tragedies like Othello, Hamlet, Macbeth, and King Lear place audiences inside difficult moral dilemmas, inviting us to wrestle with enduring questions about identity, power, and what it means to do the right thing.

Shakespeare’s plays are full of unforgettable women, but too often their voices are cut short. In She Speaks!, acclaimed actor Harriet Walter imagines what they might tell us if given the chance in original poems that deepen their stories.

A six-episode podcast drops you inside Hamlet from the prince’s POV. Director Jeremy McCarter explains how 21st-century technology unlocked a fresh take on Shakespeare’s tragedy.

Darren Freebury-Jones explores the ways in which Shakespeare reshaped the works of contemporaries like John Lyly, Thomas Kyd, and Christopher Marlowe into something distinctly his own.