The first edition of Shakespeare's plays established the playwright for all time in a trove of some 36 plays with an assembled cast of immortal charactersIn 1612, a contemporary of Shakespea…
Calling all budding critics: enter our annual competition for ground-breaking reviews of new works in the artsAnthony Burgess died in 1993. Today, in the centenary year of his birth, the aut…
The beloved writer's work will be the centrepiece of BBC2's Christmas Eve. Now 82, he talks about trying not to be an old git and waging war on squirrels'I'm afraid I really haven't got much…
A bleakly hilarious, enigmatic watershed that changed the language of theatre and still sparks debate six decades onWaiting for Godot was not just a two-act play in which, as one wit put it,…
From Abraham Lincoln's White House readings to Hollywood westerns and West Side Story, Shakespeare's plays are an integral part of the American dream. So how did this icon of Englishness bec…
There is a persistent language myth that you can find Elizabethan English alive and well and living in the Ozarks, USA. Actually, if you want to hear Shakespearean English today, all you hav…
Sylvie Guillem is the car mechanic's daughter who went on to dance with Nureyev. Now, as she calls time on her glittering career, she talks about her tantrums, her dance partners, and why th…
Heavyweight studies of Margaret Thatcher and Laurence Olivier were standouts but the real gem was a life of an Italian poet, showman and fantasist' See Viv Groskop's fiction books of the ye…
Menier Chocolate Factory, LondonThe Color Purple, a bestselling African-American classic about a southern girl's redemptive journey from family enslavement to self-realisation, has become t…
Bush theatre; Print Room; Regent's Park Open Air theatre, all LondonTo the west of the West End come three new American shows from a world turned upside down. A decade after 9/11, the trauma…
An internet production of Shakespeare's classic comedy is not so much the RSC dumbing down as Google flaunting its cultural credentials " and that can only be a good thingIn last week's blog…
Instead of silly disputes over his identity, we should be spending Tuesday's anniversary considering his workTuesday is Shakespeare's birthday, and there's no shortage of Bard news in the UK…
The discovery of a skeleton under a Leicester car park has reignited interest in the maligned monarchTo the headline writers, he's become "the king in the car park". To Shakespeare, he was t…
Tom Stoppard says his original approach to writing the screenplay for Joe Wright's new film adaptation of Anna Karenina was for a fast, modern movie about being in lust. Then wiser counsels …
Shakespeare's Globe, LondonThe pre-curtain buzz at the bar of the Globe said that this version of Shakespeare's crowd-pleasing Falstaff comedy of failed seduction, produced by Bitter Pill & …
The Cultural Olympiad is preparing to stage all his playsRobert McCrum
The elusive playwright's genius is examined again in Roland Emmerich's new film. But while the debate about who wrote the plays rages, only one thing remains sure: by his works shall we know…
The Bard's enduring impact is all down to neural excitementYesterday was Shakespeare's 447th anniversary. As with almost everything else about our national poet, this is disputed. All we can…
Can I forget the drama that's surrounded David Tennant's Hamlet and engage only with the one that's on stage in front of me? Continue reading...