Richard III

Philippa Langley’s new book explores evidence that Richard III was framed for the murder of his nephews.

The award-winning director tells us what it’s like to direct Shakespeare in the Park. Spoiler: It’s a whirlwind.

Sir Ian McKellen tells us about some of his most famous roles: playing Macbeth opposite Dame Judi Dench, King Richard III with a screenplay he co-wrote, and Gandalf the Grey in The Lord of the Rings films.

In Mike Lew’s play Teenage Dick, Richard, a high-school senior with cerebral palsy, is determined to become class president by any means necessary. Lew talks about the play’s origins, tropes around disability, and how his story reframes Richard’s motivations.

Frannie Shepherd-Bates founded Shakespeare in Prison in 2012. We speak with Shepherd-Bates about SIP and its book, Richard III—In Prison: A Critical Edition, which she says offers readers a chance to approach the play from a place of “radical empathy.”

Based on Shakespeare’s Henry VI plays, Harvard’s Dr. Jeffrey R. Wilson thought he knew how Game of Thrones would play out. But he discovered different similarities, like the way that both translate the history of the Wars of the Roses into other popular genres.

Stephen Greenblatt’s new book Tyrant explores tyranny in Shakespeare’s plays. On this podcast episode, he discusses characters like Richard III and Macbeth; how societies allow tyranny to pop up; and how and why Shakespeare used its depiction in his work to stir the audiences of his time.

Hear from an expert on the historic Richard III, David Baldwin; an expert on Shakespeare’s Richard III, Michael Dobson; and historian Retha Warnicke, who explains the practical challenges of any research into Richard’s long-ago time.