THE TEMPEST WITH CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER
Exiled Prospero lives on a desolate island with his daughter, Miranda. When Prospero’s usurping brother sails by the island, Prospero conjures a storm that wrecks the ship and changes all their lives. This production, starring the beloved actor Christopher Plummer as Prospero, was captured on stage at the Stratford Festival in 2010.
MUSE OF FIRE: A SHAKESPEREAN
ROAD MOVIE
Funny, passionate, and exciting, Muse of Fire will change the way you feel about Shakespeare forever. This unique feature documentary follows two actors, Giles Terera and Dan Poole, as they travel the world to discover everything about the greatest writer of them all. Consulting a host of helpful luminaries along the way, including Ian McKellen, James Earl Jones, Judi Dench, and Tom Hiddleston, their exciting road trip takes them to Denmark with Jude Law, Hollywood with Baz Luhrman, a prison in Berlin, and Shakespeare’s home in Stratford-upon-Avon. Admitting that they often struggled to understand the Bard, even finding him frightening, a host of today’s top actors speak openly about their early encounters with the most famous storyteller in history. Giles and Dan enthusiastically set about tackling the fear and debunking the myth, showing us how Shakespeare can be incredible fun. Think Shakespeare is boring? Think again.
A COMEDY OF ERRORS
One of Shakespeare’s early comedies, The Comedy of Errors is a fast-paced farce exploring mistaken identities and relations lost and found. This production was captured by Digital Theatre live at the Clapham Community Project. It was devised specifically for schools and families by the Royal Shakespeare Company in collaboration with the critically acclaimed theater company, Told by an Idiot. Directed by Paul Hunter, it features a cast made up from the RSC’s ensemble and uses a pared down script, props, live music, and physical comedy to convey the story.
KISS ME, KATE
Taking its inspiration from Shakespeare, this hilarious musical romp recounts the backstage and on-stage antics of two feuding romances during an out-of-town tryout for a musical adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew. Sparkling with eighteen classic Cole Porter songs including “Another Op’nin’, Another Show,” “Wunderbar,” “So in Love,” “Always True to You in My Fashion,” “Too Darn Hot,” and “Brush Up Your Shakespeare” this is Broadway musical comedy at its irresistible best. Directed by Michael Blakemore, this Tony winner for “Best Revival” stars Brent Barrett, Rachel York, Nancy Anderson, and Michael Berresse as the squabbling couples whose offstage disputes entangle them with a pair of song-and-dance gangsters and a pompous U.S. army general.
MACBETH
When three witches deliver some surprising prophecies, Macbeth hatches a plan to murder the king and claim the throne for himself. Provoked by his wife and preoccupied with greed, Macbeth begins his tragic descent into madness. Surrender to the Stratford Festival’s production of this haunting story of ambition and its dark consequences, as a military hero and his wife conspire to seize the throne of Scotland.
JULIUS CAESAR
Power, betrayal, justice. Phyllida Lloyd directs a cast including Dame Harriet Walter in Shakespeare’s great political drama, part of the Donmar Warehouse’s all-female Shakespeare Trilogy. Set in the present day in the world of a women’s prison, Julius Caesar could not be timelier as it depicts the catastrophic consequences of a political leader’s extension of his powers beyond the remit of the constitution. As Brutus (Harriet Walter) wrestles with his moral conscience over the assassination of Julius Caesar (Jackie Clune), Mark Antony (Jade Anouka) manipulates the crowd through his subtle and incendiary rhetoric to frenzied mob violence. There follows the descent of the country into factions and the outbreak of civil war.