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The Latest Breaking News from Shakespeare

Ian McKellen drops 400-year-old Shakespeare play to address US immigration debate

Actor Ian McKellen performed a Shakespearean monologue on immigration. He linked current events to historical anti-immigrant feelings. McKellen emphasized the humanity of immigrants. Other artists also spoke out against US immigration policies. Bad Bunny and Lady Gaga criticized ICE. McKellen's performance focused attention on immigration struggles.

The Times of India

Don’t betray your own heart: why the world needs grand love stories like “Wuthering Heights”

From Greek tragedy to Emily Brontë, epic romances are part of the human condition – and when imagined as films, we crave them again and again

The Guardian - UK

Riz Ahmed’s British south-Asian Hamlet is a moody tale of grief and shady family business

For Shakespeare’s Hamlet “the world is out of joint”. In screen writer Michael Lesslie’s collage of Shakespeare’s play, directed by Aneil Karia, Riz Ahmed’s intense, grief-wrecked Hamlet pays a high price as he tries to “set it right” in a corrupt corporate world.

The Conversation

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Trigger warnings risk ‘mollycoddling’ theatre audiences, says Tony-winning director

Exclusive: John Doyle says theatre should be able to disturb and challenge audiences, and not sanitise difficult themes

The Guardian - UK

All Is But Fantasy review – Lady Macbeth, Juliet and the girls belt out their grumbles as the witches let rip

Whitney White’s thrilling, song-filled show flips Shakespeare’s great characters and asks why we still lap up these tales of sexy men killing sexy women

The Guardian - UK

‘Culture is something that we all share’: Riz Ahmed on his South Asian Hamlet

Ahmed says he hopes this version of Hamlet is accessible to everyone.

Evening Standard

To cry or not to cry: how moving the audience to tears can backfire

“One must have a heart of stone not to read about the death of little Nell without laughing” was Oscar Wilde’s notorious response to the emotional onslaught of Charles Dickens’s 1841 novel, The Old Curiosity Shop. Having watched two films in two weeks about the death of a child, it…

The Conversation

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One Battle After Another named film of the year by UK Critics’ Circle

Irish star Jessie Buckley scooped actress of the year for her performance in Shakespeare film Hamnet.

Evening Standard

The best theatre to stream this month: big and bold Bacchae ushers in new era at the National

Nima Taleghani’s debut play brings a raucous Greek chorus to the Olivier theatre, while Judi Dench has an enchanting Twelfth Night reunion

The Guardian - UK

Hamlet stars Riz Ahmed and Morfydd Clark on their "urgent and exciting" Shakespeare adaptation "We brought this visceral first-person energy to it"

Big Screen Spotlight | In a big year for the Bard, the latest adaptation of Hamlet is doing things differently

Total Film

The Tempest review – Tim Crouch’s high-concept treatment roughs up the magic

Some spells are cast by this production, in which the director plays Prospero, but it also wearingly replays the same tricks

The Guardian - UK

The Tempest review: Caliban wears a Gazza shirt in fascinating and fresh take

3/5 Tim Crouch’s take on Shakespeare’s final play doesn’t always come together but is filled with plenty of magical moments

Evening Standard

Andrew Jarvis obituary

Other lives: Actor and drama teacher with a particular focus on Shakespeare

The Guardian - UK

Academy Awards 2026: How ‘Hamnet’ will help me lead Shakespeare classes about ‘Hamlet’s’ Ophelia

When I teach Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, many students love the character Ophelia, and so do I. But the play seems to silence her just when readers need to know more about how she sees the world and her place in it — especially the young women in my classes.

The Conversation

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The Guardian - UK

Ryan Coogler’s Sinners has administered an almighty smackdown to critical favourites One Battle and Hamnet

Coogler’s vampire thriller swept the Oscar nominations over Chloé Zhao’s tearjerker and Paul Thomas Anderson’s counterculture thriller. This genre-defying drama about the black experience could now rule awards season

Evening Standard

Jessie Buckley scores Oscar nomination while Sinners makes history with 16 nods

The Irish star is up for the best actress Academy Award for Hamnet.

The Guardian - US

‘The most dangerous man in America’: how Paul Robeson went from Hollywood to blacklist

The groundbreaking singer, actor and athlete became a victim of McCarthyism and saw his shining career destroyed and his legacy tarnished

The Guardian - UK

A new Henry V is a barometer of our times – what can Shakespeare’s war play tell us amid global chaos?

Revivals of this history play usually reflect the politics of the moment. Now a fresh RSC retelling arrives in a world of instability and fractured alliances

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Evening Standard

Sir Ian McKellen says it was ‘unexpected’ to play Hamlet in his 80s

The 86-year-old discussed taking on the titular role in Shakespeare’s famous play.

Bored Panda

People Almost Had A Stroke Trying To Read These 108 Hilariously Confusing Pics

We invented both Shakespeare and the word “yeet.” We put a man on the moon but still can’t figure out how to make women’s pockets bigger than two centimeters. So it’s only fitting that the internet we ended up with was never going to be calm or rational. The Facebook…

The Conversation

Why we love literary anniversaries

Last year marked 250 years since the birth of the English novelist Jane Austen. The Conversation celebrated this important literary milestone with a series of articles and a dedicated podcast, Jane Austen’s Paper Trail. This special year saw a variety of high-profile celebratory events across the country, from regency balls…

The Guardian - UK

Poem of the week: Now, Mother, What’s the Matter? by Richard W Halperin

An exploration of what constitutes the literary arts – plus all the ‘troubled hearts’ and demons that accompany it – through the lens of Shakespeare’s Hamlet

The Conversation

It takes many ghosts to make a story: how Maggie O'Farrell’s Hamnet takes from – and mistakes – Shakespeare

In her eighth novel Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell imagines the short life and tragic death of Shakespeare’s only son, aged 11, in 1596. Although it is not known how Hamnet died, O’Farrell attributes his death to the plague. She creates a visceral and affecting portrait of his swift decline and the…

BANG Premier

Paul Mescal on grief in Hamnet

Paul Mescal says Hamnet’s ending shows the impact of grief and the visually striking image of William Shakespeare covered in cracking clay at the end helps to portray this.

The Conversation

‘That’s not how I pictured it’ – why book-to-film adaptations so often disappoint

As Hamnet arrives on the big screen, many fans of the book may feel a familiar mix of excitement and trepidation. They may wonder how the film will bring to life Maggie O'Farrell’s intimate portrayal of Shakespeare’s wife, Agnes, and the loss of their son.

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