Shakespeare as a character Acting Shakespeare Television series NOTE: "ShakespeaRe-Told", "The Animated Shakespeare" and "BBC Television Shakespeare" series have been covered above, under the respective play performed in each episode. •
Playing Shakespeare (TV, UK, 1979–1984) began as two consecutive episodes of the UK arts series
The South Bank Show, and developed into a nine-part series of its own. It features director
John Barton, then a leading light of the Royal Shakespeare Company, putting a host of actors through their paces. Many of those actors are now household names, including
Judi Dench,
Michael Pennington,
Patrick Stewart,
Ben Kingsley,
David Suchet and
Ian McKellen. The episodes were: •
The South Bank Show: "Speaking Shakespearean Verse" •
The South Bank Show: "Preparing to Perform Shakespeare" • 1. "The Two Traditions" • 2. "Using the Verse" • 3. "Language and Character" • 4. "Set Speeches and Soliloquies" • 5. "Irony and Ambiguity" • 6. "Passion and Coolness" • 7. "Rehearsing the Text" • 8. "Exploring a Character" • 9. "Poetry and Hidden Poetry" Three further episodes were filmed but never edited or screened. They were to be called "Using the Prose", "Using the Sonnets" and "Contemporary Shakespeare". Their text can be read in the book "Playing Shakespeare" by
John Barton. •
The Shakespeare Sessions (USA 2003): An American spin-off from
Playing Shakespeare (above) in which
John Barton directs notable American actors in Shakespeare scenes. •
Conjuring Shakespeare (TV, UK, 199?): A series of half-hour documentaries hosted by
Fiona Shaw, each episode dealing with scenes from a particular play. •
In Search of Shakespeare (TV, UK, 2003): A BBC documentary series of four 1-hour episodes, chronicling the life of William Shakespeare, written and presented by
Michael Wood. •
Slings & Arrows (TV, Canada, 2003–2006): A Canadian comedy drama set in the New Burbage Shakespeare Festival, a fictional Shakespearean festival in a small town in Canada comparable to the real-life
Stratford Shakespeare Festival. With its entire run written by
Susan Coyne,
Bob Martin and
Mark McKinney, directed by
Peter Wellington, and starring
Paul Gross,
Martha Burns and
Stephen Ouimette, it aired in three seasons of six 1-hour episodes each. •
Som & Fúria (TV, Brazil, 2009): A Brazilian adaptation of
Slings and Arrows.
Academic • The "Themes of Shakespeare" series contains straight-to-video short documentaries, each considering the theme of a particular play. The contributors are Professor
Stanley Wells, and Dr. Robert Smallwood of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. • Two lecture series given by professor Peter Saccio were filmed and are commercially available on DVD.
Miscellaneous •
Theatre of Blood (UK, 1973). Vincent Price plays a Shakespearean actor who takes poetic revenge on the critics who denied him recognition. He kills his critics using methods inspired by several of Shakespeare's plays:
Julius Caesar,
Troilus and Cressida,
The Merchant of Venice,
Richard III,
Othello,
Cymbeline,
Romeo and Juliet,
Henry VI Part One,
Titus Andronicus, and
King Lear. :
Douglas Hickox director :
Vincent Price as Edward Lionheart :
Diana Rigg as Edwina Lionheart •
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) by the
Reduced Shakespeare Company is a successful
West End stage comedy, containing some element of all 37 canonical plays. A film of one of the live performances is commercially available. • The
Royal Shakespeare Company have released a number of videos in the "Great Performances" series, which contain excerpts from stage performances. ==See also==