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Neil Gaiman's Faustian Bargain with William Shakespeare

What kind of relationship do Gaiman and Shakespeare have? Is one a parasite on the other?
Recent
Culture

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.

Theatre

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.

Music

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.

Film

'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.

Games

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.

Film

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.

Music

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.

Film

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.

Reviews

'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.

Film

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?

Books

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.

Reviews

'Saw' Points: Patrick Stewart in 'Macbeth'

This is a gripping interpretation of Macbeth, combining modern horror and Soviet-era paranoia.

Music

Rufus Wainwright: All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu

Much as we don't go to Las Vegas looking for a quaint bed-and-breakfast, we don't go to Rufus Wainwright looking for John Denver. It is drama we seek and drama we get -- emotional spectacle of the highest order.

Reviews

Ian McKellen: Acting Shakespeare

For anyone who appreciates acting this is highly recommended; for anyone studying acting, it's essential. If everything this educational was this entertaining, everyone in the world would have a Ph.D.

Film

New Moon: Wherefor Art Thou Edward?

Bella and Edward's longing for each other is what makes the series so appealing. It fully encapsulates the bliss and agony of first love or any love that would make you lie down and die for the other person.

Books

So Long as Men Can Breathe by Clinton Heylin

It’s entirely refreshing to read about Shakespeare without the hushed tone of literary sanctity, while preserving the rigors of good research.

Kevin Shaw
Books

Shakespeare the Thinker by A.D. Nuttall

To be or not to be a philosopher did not concern Shakespeare, so far as we know. And we know very little.

Carlin Romano
Books

The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber

When the big firefight finally comes, it's delivered with such killer and off-kilter panache that Elmore Leonard would be envious.

Chris Barsanti
Reviews

Shakespeare: The Biography by Peter Ackroyd

Seemingly no kernel of isolated trivia or controversial factoid is small enough to escape the author's notice.

Tim O'Neil

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