Shakespeare in the world

60 years after the premiere of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, a new stage comedy is using Stoppard’s absurdist template to explore the fears and struggles of the two main clowns from Much Ado About Nothing.

Scholar Jean E. Feerick looks at how Hamnet takes us back to a premodern world when people knew how deeply nature pervades us. Inspired by Shakespeare’s own eco-sensibility, Zhao’s film invites us to consider anew our place in the world.

In an excerpt from her new book about when literature spoke truth to power during the Red Scare, critic Marjorie Garber looks at how Shakespeare inspired journalist Edward R. Murrow and the role it continued to play in his reporting.

Austin Tichenor writes about why the behind-the-scenes workings of a Shakespeare theater festival make for such great television in Slings and Arrows and the connections with its sequel-in-spirit American Classic starring Kevin Kline.

150 years after her death Margaret of Anjou returned as a character in four early Shakespeare plays, Henry VI, Parts 1, 2, and 3 and Richard III. She’s found fans in every era since, including in community performances on the island of Roatán.

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.

Summer reading is one of the season’s great pleasures. Add to your TBR stack from our list of fiction and non-fiction titles exploring Shakespeare, his world, and our own. Happy reading!

One of the books in the Folger collection is extraordinary for both its cover, the War of the Roses binding created by book artist Léon Maillard, and its contents, the Pavier quartos, an early try at publishing a collection of Shakespeare’s plays.

From Ellen Terry to Sir Ian McKellen, Shakespearean actors performing solo shows is a time-honored tradition. Austin Tichenor shares a wide-ranging sampling of one-person Shakespeare shows from the past century.

He’s quoted Shakespeare in numerous speeches, from his first as king to his most recent at the White House during his state visit at the end of April. But Charles III’s interest in Shakespeare goes all the way back to his school days.

A roundup of Shakespeare stories, including discoveries about his only London real estate purchase and family papers; all Shakespeare’s plays ranked as well as video games Shakespeare would love; and actors sharing Shakespeare.

Viewers might be surprised by the number of Shakespearean elements in the miniseries which fictionalizes the doomed relationship between John F. Kennedy, Jr. and his wife Carolyn Bessette. And they’re not all from Romeo and Juliet.