Blogging Shakespeare

Speaking after the bombings that took place at the Boston marathon, President Obama stated his determination to ‘get to the bottom’ of the atrocity and promised that those found to be responsible would ‘feel the full weight of justice’. The word ‘justice’ resounded each time I heard the sound bite in the days that followed; [...]

Paul Edmondson and I were interested to read Diana Price’s courteous response to my blog about her book Shakespeare’s Unorthodox Biography. Here are some comments. She writes that I do not ‘directly confront’ what she calls her ‘single strongest argument … the comparative analysis of documentary evidence supporting the biographies of Shakespeare and his contemporaries.’ [...]

On Monday this week, The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust hosted a webinar, ‘Reviewing Shakespeare’, an in-depth discussion I had with Dr Paul Prescott (University of Warwick) about how and why we review Shakespearian productions. What makes a good theatre review? Do we dare to ‘speak what we feel not what we ought to say’? (King Lear, [...]

Publication of Shakespeare Beyond Doubt, the volume of essays attempting to lay to rest doubts about the authorship of Shakespeare’s works which I co-edited with Paul Edmondson, has involved me in a number of open discussions, some of them along with people who take the opposite point of view. At the Stratford Literary Festival, and [...]

In January of 2014, Shakespeare’s Globe will be moving indoors. The much anticipated Sam Wanamaker Playhouse will open with a season of early modern plays. But why should anyone be interested in this new theatre when the great Globe itself has been the main attraction of the Bankside complex for the last 15 years? 1. [...]

Our recording of the rather heated webinar, ‘Proving Shakespeare’, which took place last Friday is now live. I am joined by Professor Stanley Wells C.B.E. and Dr Ros Barber. The webinar was sponsored by Cambridge University Press and marked the publication of Shakespeare Beyond Doubt: Evidence, Argument, Controversy. There is plenty of all three in [...]

Why should we review theatre? What makes a good theatre review? Do we dare to speak the truth about what we see? Join us for a free webinar on ‘Reviewing Shakespeare’ sponsored by Bloomsbury Publishing. It’s on Monday 6 May at 4.00pm (British Summer Time) and you can register for it by clicking here. Last [...]

My own schooling was very different to Shakespeare’s. I didn’t have to arrive at school by 6.30am most mornings; I didn’t have to speak Latin and Greek in the classroom; I wasn’t ever threatened with the birch. I went to Huntington Comprehensive School in York and that is where I fell in love with Shakespeare. [...]

Last month the University of Notre Dame hosted its second annual lecture in honour of Professor Stanley Wells C.B.E. The event was presented in partnership with The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and The Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham and was generously supported by the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, Notre Dame. You can watch the whole [...]