Recent

Fair Is Foul and Foul Is Fair But Geoffrey Wright's 'Macbeth' Is Just Foul

Shakespeare's plays offer endless potential for adaptation, but sometimes, as is true of Geoffrey Wright's Macbeth (2006), when these reinterpretations fail we get a clearer impression of the original's genius.

Film

Making Troy Great Again: On Shakespeare's 'Troilus and Cressida' and Trump's Ugly Political Rhetoric

The Trump presidency is Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida made real – only it's stripped of the mythology and just lying bare and ugly for all to see.

Theatre

The Spoiled Little Man-Child They Made King: Celebrity, Richard II, and Donald Trump

Did Shakespeare predict Trump? No. That's ridiculous. He just wrote a play about a thin-skinned, petty, self-aggrandising narcissist whose poor leadership drove an empire to ruin. Totally different.

Culture

Shakespeare's 'As You Like It' Trumps Reality TV

Shakespeare's As You Like It employed every signature reality show convention three and a half centuries before television even existed.

Theatre

Paul Kelly: Seven Sonnets and a Song

Legendary Australian songwriter Paul Kelly reconciles his trademark acoustic style with the works of Shakespeare on his latest album, Seven Sonnets and a Song.

Music

'Richard III' Is Ian McKellen's Glorious Rendition of an Absolute Villain

With Shakespeare's A Game of Thrones rendered into a Fascist version of '30s Britain, be careful whose side you're on.

Film

Playing the Fool

Cliff Johnson's 1987 classic, The Fool's Errand, is an homage to the tradition of the Fool in the literature and folklore of Western culture.

Games

'Pop Sonnets' Is an Evolutionary Leap for Both Vanilla Ice and Shakespeare

This book is clearly a long labor of love, and a terrific feat of will and intellect.

Reviews

An Epochal Tragedy Transforms Into a World Cinema Masterwork in 'Throne of Blood'

By combining Macbeth with elements of traditional Japanese drama, Akira Kurosawa produced a singular, transcultural film experience.

Film

A Nightly Ritual: Bob Dylan's Never-Changing Set List

Bob Dylan's current show is a book musical without the book, crafted by the American Shakespeare.

Music

The Evil That Men Do Lives After Them

Caesar Must Die and The Act of Killing are experiments that mix fiction and reality in distinct ways in order to investigate the relationship between freedom and violence.

Film

'Shakespeare for Life': Teaching the Bard to Supermax Prisoners

While this does not prove that literature makes all of us better, it does demonstrate how the plays of Shakespeare have made one man better -- and that man happens to be a convicted murderer with no hope for parole.

Reviews

Perfect for Theatre Nerds: 'Slings & Arrows: The Complete Collection'

Slings and Arrows gives you three seasons of the New Burbage Theatre Festival, courtesy of some of Canada's finest writing and acting talent.

Reviews

In All Things Pop Culture, Reinterpretation is the Key to Relevancy

Everyone bemoans the remake, the bastardization of their memories, of something they hold dear. But times are constantly shifting, and our heroes cannot exist in a static universe. Without proper reinterpretation, would our pop icons still be relevant?

Film

Heart of America Shakespeare Festival: 28 June 2012 - Kansas City, MO

In the very least, if not a hagiography, Cleopatra is afforded much attention in this rendition. And what a delightful and instructive rendition it is.

Reviews

Freud's Couch, Scott's Buttock's, Brontë's Grave' Is a Bit Cheeky, but Conservative

Given the chance to write any kind of book on literary culture, this Cambridge professor chooses dead, white male established figures, oh – and the Brontë Sisters (everyone’s token girl writers!). No boundaries broken here.

Books

Pop Ten

The 50 Best Albums of 2019 So Far

Jackie Chan's 10 Best Films

The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '80s: Part 1: 100 - 81

The 20 Best Avant-Garde and Experimental Albums of 2018

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