Mickey B (2007) A feature film adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, written and performed by serving prisoners inside Maghaberry Prison in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Read More
Richard III (Li cha san shi), directed by WANG Xiaoying, The National Theatre of China (Beijing) | Premiered at the London Globe during the 2012 Globe to Globe Festival Read More
This production of King Lear by the Belarus Free Theatre was first staged at the Globe Theatre in London as part of the 2012 Globe to Globe Festival (April 23 to June 9), and brought back to the Globe in 2013 (September 23 to 28). A theatre in exile from a totalitarian state, the Belarus Free Theatre drew on the history of reading Shakespeare in the Soviet Union, as well as on the current situation in Belarus, to comment on the cruelty, violence, and individual vulnerability generated under the conditions of dictatorship. Read More
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Le songe d’une nuit d’été), directed by Peter Brook, Royal Shakespeare Company. Also known as Peter Brook’s Dream. Premiered in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon in 1970 and then moved to the Aldwych Theatre in London’s West End in 1971. World tour in 1972-3. Read More
A contemporary film adaptation of King Lear, set in modern-day London, centred on the life of three generations of immigrants of a Hindu family from Bengal. Read More
Ur-Hamlet is a multicultural project by Odin Teatret: a performance that brings together the Odin Teatret ensemble, a group of actor-dancers from Bali, Japan, Brazil, musicians from different parts of the world, and a long-term pedagogical project for young trainees from all over the world. Read More
Henry V is the fourth and final episode in The Hollow Crown TV series aired in 2012 and produced by Sam Mendes. Thea Sharrock directed this adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play. The other three episodes are: Richard II; Henry IV, Part 1; and Henry IV, Part 2. Read More
Henry IV, Part 2 is the third of four episodes in The Hollow Crown TV series aired in 2012 and produced by Sam Mendes. Richard Eyre directed this adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play and adapted the screenplay. The other three episodes are: Richard II; Henry IV, Part 1; and Henry V. Read More
Henry IV, Part 1 is the second of four episodes in The Hollow Crown TV series aired in 2012 and produced by Sam Mendes. Richard Eyre directed this adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play and adapted the screenplay. The other three episodes are: Richard II; Henry IV, Part 2; and Henry V. Read More
Richard II is the first of four episodes in The Hollow Crown TV series aired in 2012 and produced by Sam Mendes. Rupert Goold directed this adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play and collaborated with Ben Power on the screenplay. The other three episodes are: Henry IV, Part 1; Henry IV, Part 2; and Henry V. Read More
King John is the earliest film adaptation of one of William Shakespeare’s plays. The short silent film was made in 1899 and depicts the death of King John. It was directed by William Kennedy, Laurie Dickinson and Walter Pfeffer Dando and produced by British Mutoscope and Biograph Company. Read More
From the National Theatre of Scotland comes a one-man production of William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. Directed by John Tiffany and Andrew Goldberg, this re-imagined production is set in a psychiatric unit. This performance is approximately one hour and 45 minutes, with no intermission. Read More
In this Shakespearean farce, Hero (Kate Beckinsale) and her groom-to-be, Claudio (Robert Sean Leonard), team up with Claudio’s commanding officer, Don Pedro (Denzel Washington), the week before their wedding to hatch a matchmaking scheme. Their targets are sharp-witted duo Benedick (Kenneth Branagh) and Beatrice (Emma Thompson) — a tough task indeed, considering their corresponding distaste for love and each other. Meanwhile, meddling Don John (Keanu Reeves) plots to ruin the wedding. Read More
Ralph Fiennes stars as the title character and makes his directorial debut in this 2011 adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play Coriolanus. The film was shot in Belgrade, and the story was updated to a contemporary setting. John Logan wrote the screenplay. Read More
Kenneth Branagh dressed as Isambard Kingdom Brunel during the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics (directed by Danny Boyle) and recited Caliban’s lines from The Tempest 3.2.138-145 (2005 Oxford edition). The closing ceremony featured Timothy Spall’s Winston Churchill reciting the same passage spoken by Branagh earlier. Read More
Released in 1913, Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson’s Hamlet is a black and white silent film with English subtitles. The film is a 22 minute version of the play, directed by Hay Plumb and produced by Cecil M. Hepworth. Other cast members include Gertrude Eliot, Adeline Bourne, and J.H. Barnes.
Cast
Patrick Stewart … Antony
Harriet Walter … Cleopatra
John Hopkin … Octavius Caesar
Stephen Brimson-Lewis … Set Designer
Additional resources can be found for this production here.
For more information about the stage performance, see the RSC website.
Harriet Walter as Cleopatra and Patrick Stewart as Antony are dancing on stage
This 2008 production of Romeo and Juliet was set in 1940s/50s Italy, and costumes were inspired by The Sopranos and The Godfather. Director Neil Bartlett also made the decision to have Juliet deliver her lines in the balcony scene from a cast-iron bed frame.
Cast
Anneika Rose … Juliet
David Dawson … Romeo
Credits
Director … Neil Bartlett
Designer … Kandis Cook
Additional resources can be found for this production here.
Article “Sweet Sorrow” by Neil Bartlett which addresses why Romeo and Juliet remains popular and is a good introduction into the subject of Shakespeare.
For more information about past productions of Romeo and Juliet by the Royal Shakespeare Company, see the RSC Archive.
Shakespeare’s immortal “To be, or not to be” takes on a whole new meaning (and medium) as classical stage and screen actors David Tennant and (recently-knighted) Sir Patrick Stewart reprise their roles for a modern-dress, film-for-television adaptation of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s (RSC) 2008 stage production of Hamlet. Read More
King Lear is a 2008 television film based on the William Shakespeare play of the same name, directed by Trevor Nunn. It was broadcast on More4 in the UK on Christmas Day, and shown on PBS’ Great Performances in the United States in March 2009. The production was filmed mainly at Pinewood Studios in England. Read More
Titus is a 1999 film adaptation of William Shakespeare’s revenge tragedy Titus Andronicus, about the downfall of a Roman general, the first theatrically-released feature film adaptation of the play. Starring Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange, it was the directorial debut of Julie Taymor, who co-produced with Jody Patton and Conchita Airoldi, and wrote the screenplay. Read More
Taitasu Andoronikasu was performed in England in June 2006, at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon and the Theatre Royal in Plymouth, United Kingdom. This production was directed by Yukio Ninagawa.
Reviews
Billington, Michael. Review of “Titus Andronicus,” The Guardian, 22 June 2006.
Curtin, Sean. Review of “Titus Andronicus,” The Japan Society.
Kirwan, Peter. “Titus Andronicus (Ninagawa Company) @ The Royal Shakespeare Theatre,” The Bardathon, University of Nottingham, 24 June 2006.
What happened to the three daughters of King Lear before they made their entrances in Shakespeare’s classic? Yellow Earth Theatre presents this seminal work exploring the formative years in three young women’s lives. Read More
Lear hands over control of his global business empire to his daughters. In his Shanghai penthouse, he asks them to justify their inheritance. The older sisters flatter their father in elegant Chinese but English educated Cordelia, no longer fluent in her father’s tongue, says “Nothing” and the loss of face sends Lear into a spiral of fury and madness. Read More
An intricately plotted tale of thwarted love and betrayal, “The Golden Bowl” tells the story of an extravagantly rich American widower (Nick Nolte) and his sheltered daughter (Kate Beckinsale), both of whom marry only to discover that their respective mates, a beautiful American expatriate (Uma Thurman) and an impoverished Italian aristocrat (Jeremy Northam), are entangled with one another in a romantic intrigue of seduction and deceit. Read More
Coriolanus (Korioreinasu) was performed at the Barbican Theatre in London 2007.
Cast
Toshiaki Caracara as Coriolanus
Masanobu Katsumura as Aufidius
Kotaro Yoshida as Menenius
Crew
Choreography – Masahiro Kunii
Set Designer – Tsukasa Nakagoshi,
Costume Designer – Lily Komine
Lighting Designer – Tamotsu Harada
Witty, playful and utterly magical, the story is a compelling romantic adventure in which Rosalind and Orlando’s celebrated courtship is played out against a backdrop of political rivalry, banishment and exile in the Forest of Arden – set in 19th-century Japan. Read More
