Shakespeare Bulletin

An image of Pistol (James Udom), Doll Tearsheet (Cara Ricketts), Sir John Falstaff (Jay O. Sanders), Nym (Slate Holmgren), Bardolph (Elan Zafir), and Prince Hal (Elijah Jones) cheering with their glasses, with the text “What does Prince Hal learn in Henry IV? How to create and lead a band of brothers. Just as the director, Eric Tucker, creatively led a company that embodied and celebrated an exceptionally difficult story.” over a purple background with the SB logo.

Terri Bourus reviews Theatre for a New Audience’s 2025 production of Henry IV, adapted by Dakin Matthews and directed by Eric Tucker

🎭: tfana.org/events/henry...

📰: muse.jhu.edu/article/981813

📷: Gerry Goodstein

An image of Margaret 3 (Kathleen Akerley), King Edward IV (Kiana Johnson), Henry VI (Samuel Richie), The Chorus (Stephen Kime), Richard III (Devin Nikki Thomas), Margaret 1 (Alyssa Sanders), and Margaret 2 (Sara Barker) clumped together, with the text “In this instance, Séamus Miller placed Margaret center stage in an adaptation that merged scenes from the various plays she inhabits. Notably, however, Avant Bard split the role of Margaret in The Margriad between three powerful and adept performers: Alyssa Sanders, Sara Barker, and Kathleen Akerley [...] They each presented a formidable Margaret, who fairly seamlessly morphed into the Queen at various stages of her life.” over a purple background with the SB logo.

Sheila T. Cavanagh reviews Avant Bard Theatre’s 2025 production of The Magriad, or, The Tragedy of Queen Margaret, adapted and directed by Séamus Miller

🎭: avantbard.org/project/the-...

📰: muse.jhu.edu/article/981816

📷: DJ Corey Photography

An image of Mortimer (Enzo Cilenti) and Isabella (Ruta Gedmintas) sitting on the edge of a dark stage, with the text “Conflating the 1940s with the present day, Raggett’s vision explored not only the breakdown of power, but also the contemporary echoes of Edward’s plight, particularly through the play’s treatment of racial and gender politics.” over a purple background with the SB logo.

Connie Newstead reviews the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2025 production of Edward II, dir. Daniel Raggett

🎭: www.rsc.org.uk/edward-ii/

📰: muse.jhu.edu/article/981811

📷: Helen Murray

An image of Anne (Vitriolplays) and Richard (Jonathan Thomas) in the post-apocalyptic online world of Fallout 76, with the text “I saw [The Wasteland Theatre Company’s] take on Richard as a ghoul as being sympathetic to the disability conversations surrounding the play, and at the same time, a thought-provoking reading of Richard’s charismatic and ghoulish nature. Nevertheless, a video game Richard III production raises important questions surrounding performance ethics in virtual spaces.” over a purple background with the SB logo.

Remson DeJoseph reviews The Wasteland Theatre Company’s 2024 production of Richard the Ghoul, dir. Jonathan Thomas

🎭: www.wastelandtheatre.com/director-s-b...

📰: muse.jhu.edu/article/981814

📷: Jessica-Star Hussiere

The text “While Lloyd’s Tempest ventured to explore Shakespeare’s world among the stars, the storm of [Just Stop Oil’s] stage invasion brought the production crashing back to earth amidst the burning climate issues of our own planet. The events at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane ultimately raised the question: were Caliban and JSO working against each other, or are they fighting on the same side?” over a purple background with the SB logo.

Laurie Higgins reviews The Jamie Lloyd Company’s 2024-25 production of The Tempest, dir. Jamie Lloyd

🎭: thejamielloydcompany.com/productions/

📰: muse.jhu.edu/article/981819

An image of Mistress Page (Leah Gabriel), Mistress Quickly (Angela Iannone), and Anne Page (Summer England) dancing in masks, with the text “[This production] tested the limits of my conceptual senses and forced me to lean forward, engage, and see these eight people not as a cast of actors hectically changing costumes and voices, but as an ensemble; a community of skilled performers who contain multitudes and are capable of holding space for complex—and at times contradictory—identities.” over a purple background with the SB logo.

Joan Raube-Wilson reviews the American Shakespeare Center’s 2024 production of The Merry Wives of Windsor, dir. Dawn Monique Williams

🎭: americanshakespearecenter.com/events/merry...

📰: muse.jhu.edu/article/981819

📷: October Grace Media

An image of Petruccio (Timur Acar) and Katherina (Melis Birkan) in veils, kneeling in front of a banquet table, with the text “Metatheatricality emerged here as a form of resistance, challenging not only the Shakespearean canon but also the constructed nature of linear narratives, underscoring the production’s ultimate goal to shock, disturb, and alienate.” over a purple background with the SB logo.

Burak Urucu reviews Moda Sahnesi’s 2024 production of Şirreti Evcilleştirmek, adapted and directed by Kemal Aydoğan

🎭: www.modasahnesi.com/events/sirre...

📰: muse.jhu.edu/article/981815

📷: Orçun Kaya (Şirreti Evcilleştirmek)

An image of Shylock (Richard Topol) in a cape, fedora, and disguise glasses, with the text “Golyak conceived his production of The Merchant of Venice as a play-within-a-television-show [...] That framework created an opportunity to depict Shylock as an object of scorn and derision, yet also challenge that hateful objectification, since it was never quite clear to what extent the story being told was that of the television show or the play-within-the-show.” over a purple background with the SB logo.

Justin B. Hopkins reviews Arlekin Player’s 2024 production of The Merchant of Venice, adapted and directed by Igor Golyak

🎭: www.merchantofveniceplay.com

📰: muse.jhu.edu/article/981817

📷: Pavel Antonov (The Merchant of Venice)

360 Tour | Shakespeare's Globe A world-renowned theatre, education centre, and cultural landmark, located on the bank of the River Thames in London, UK.

Curious about how a 360 view of Shakespeare’s Globe is captured? A virtual tour is provided here, used exclusively as a resource in Globe teaching workshops: www.shakespearesglobe.com/learn/school...

Pye’s book, Unearthing Shakespeare: Embodied Performance and the Globe, is now open access at the Routledge website! Flip to Chapter 2 “Examining the Globe” or Chapter 7 “Energizing the Language” for the work that inspired her Shakespeare Bulletin article: www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-mon...

Today’s Extra Credit focuses on Valerie Clayman Pye’s article ““I have thee not, and yet I see thee still”: Shakespeare’s Globe, Augmented Reality, and Actor Training”. Check out these open-access resources to go along with this open-access article!

📰: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

The framework of Buddhism sits at the heart of Ran, and at the heart of this article! Take a look at The Tannisho, a compilation of the writings of Shinran, the founder of Shin Buddhism: www.themathesontrust.org/papers/farea...

Want a deeper dive into the ethics that Kurosawa’s Ran explores? Flip through Jacques Derrida’s The Gift of Death, which explores the relationship between individual responsibility and faith: sufipathoflove.com/wp-content/u...

Learn more about bushido with “Bushido: Way of Total Bullshit”, which outlines the history of the samurai code: www.tofugu.com/japan/bushido/
or Inazo Nitobe’s book Bushido: The Samurai Code of Japan, which provides a comprehensive overview of the culture: www.thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/files/...

Today’s Extra Credit focuses on Linhan (Shumo) Gan’s article “Bound by Belief: The Collapse of Bushido and the Rise of Faith in Ran”. Check out these open-access resources to go along with this open-access article!

📰: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

Here comes Beatrice | Much Ado About Nothing (2011) | Act 2 Scene 3 | Shakespeare's Globe YouTube video by Shakespeare's Globe

If you want to see clips from the productions discussed in the article, you can find a Benedick/Beatrice scene from the 2011 Globe production here: www.youtube.com/watch?si=8nE... and the trailer from the 2022 National Theatre production here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Vub...

Want to learn about the phenomenon of “speechless women” more broadly? You can read the article “No Small Parts (Only Speechless Women)” by actor-scholar Paige Martin Reynolds, which is referenced in MacLeod’s piece! www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/14...

For those interested in the sidelining of Margaret, Kelsey Brooke Smith’s piece ““Against her will, as it appears”: Making Margaret Quiet and Good in Much Ado about Nothing” interrogates the abridgment of Margaret in favor of softening the play's theme of infidelity omeka.li.suu.edu/ojs/index.ph...

Today’s Extra Credit focuses on Emily MacLeod’s article “Editing Margaret: Theatrical and Filmic Cuts in Much Ado about Nothing”. Check out these open-access resources to go along with this open-access article! All resources are included in the link in our bio.

📰: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

The issue concludes with our book reviews section, featuring Amy Lidster’s review of “Leicester’s Men and Their Plays: An Early Elizabethan Playing Company and Its Legacy”, by Laurie Johnson.

The issue continues with twelve performance reviews, including two new works which reimagine Shakespeare’s plays through a feminist lens: A Room in the Castle, which recenters Hamlet around Ophelia and Gertrude, and The Magriad, or, The Tragedy of Queen Margaret.

NEW ISSUE KLAXON: Shakespeare Bulletin 43.3 is now published via Project Muse! This open access issue features articles on Margaret's presentation in Much Ado; an analysis of bushido in Kurosawa's Ran; and a pedagogy-oriented exploration of a Globe app for actor-training.
📰: muse.jhu.edu/issue/56353

You can learn more about Benjamin Blyth’s research at his website, www.shoreditchshakespeare.co.uk, which includes his past, present, and future projects.

These violent delights have violent ends | Blogs & features Fights, brawls, feuds and duels in Romeo and Juliet and Elizabethan England.

If you want to read more about fights, brawls, and duels in Romeo and Juliet and Elizabethan England, take a look at the Shakespeare's Globe Blog post: "These violent delights have violent ends": www.shakespearesglobe.com/discover/blo...

Still curious about Shoreditch, where the Curtain Theatre was discovered? Check out The Stage Shoreditch - History & Heritage site, which shares more information about the excavation and the playhouse’s history: www.thestageshoreditch.com/discover/his...

The Curtain Theatre: The citizen's playhouse for high-octane drama Today we’re able to reveal further fascinating insights into Shakespeare’s Curtain Theatre in Shoreditch and how its shape and form led it become a true citizen’s playhouse...

You can learn more about the excavation findings at the Curtain Theatre from this Museum of London Archaeology blog post: www.mola.org.uk/discoveries/...

The team shares the remarkable discovery that the stage was 14 metres long (directly related to Blyth’s argument about R&J's fight choreo).

Today’s Extra Credit focuses on Benjamin Blyth’s article, “Shakespeare’s “Dramatic Style” at the Curtain: A Collaborative Model for Site-Responsive Practice-as-Research”. Check out these open-access resources to go along with this open-access article!

📰: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

Still curious about Shoreditch, where the Curtain Theatre was discovered? Check out The Stage Shoreditch - History & Heritage site, which shares more information about the excavation and the playhouse’s history: www.thestageshoreditch.com/discover/his...

The Curtain Theatre: The citizen's playhouse for high-octane drama Today we’re able to reveal further fascinating insights into Shakespeare’s Curtain Theatre in Shoreditch and how its shape and form led it become a true citizen’s playhouse...

You can learn more about the excavation findings at the Curtain Theatre from this Museum of London Archaeology blog post: www.mola.org.uk/discoveries/... The team shares the remarkable discovery that the stage was 14 metres long (directly related to Blyth’s argument about R&J's fight choreo)

An image of GTA avatars created by Dipo Ola, Gareth Turkington, Pinny Grylls, ParTebMosMir, and Sam Crane standing around a limo, with the text “Spanning from the lock-downs of early 2021 until their online performance in summer 2022, Grand Theft Hamlet follows Crane, Oosterveen, and Pinny Grylls (documentary maker, co-director, and Crane's partner) as they cast, direct, and stage Hamlet in the surreal, chaotic sprawl of Los Santos, GTA's glittering, gun-riddled vision of Los Angeles.” over an orange background with the SB logo.

Emily Rowe reviews a Project 1961, Grasp the Nettle Films, and Park Pictures production Grand Theft Hamlet, dir. Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane

🎭: www.undiscoveredcountryfilm.com

📰: muse.jhu.edu/article/974953

📷: Production still courtesy of Sam Crane