r/shakespeare

I was wondering what are 3 strong supporting points for the argument that Ophelia’s death in Hamlet represents her first and only autonomous act rather than simply passive surrender or madness?

One of my ideas is escape from patriarchal control but I can't think of any more

50 mark essay for my alevel this morning!

I have two auditions coming up with different theaters, one for Ophelia in Hamlet and one for Sylvia in Two Gentlemen of Verona. They’re less than a week apart, so I’ve been toying with the idea of learning one piece to fit both characters so I can really dedicate myself to exploring it instead of trying to learn two pieces at once. Are there any female monologues that would fit both, even though they’re fairly different characters? I tend to do best with the softer, more romantic types so I’ve been combing through those; so far my top choice is Helena’s “How happy some o’er other some can be,” as I think I can slightly alter how I play it for each character, but I’m not fully sold on it and would appreciate any opinions on pieces that would work for both. Thanks in advance!

[Just a quick disclaimer because I know Reddit can be a very sensitive. This is obviously going to be a controversial, difficult topic; so please keep it relatively light in the comments because I am genuinely interested and would prefer that the post not be taken down by moderators]

What do you think of blackface in productions?

Not out of mockery like minstrel shows, but moreso for accuracy of the character like in Sir Laurence Olivier's Othello.

Just trying to gauge what people think, so I appreciate any knowledge/opinions whatsoever.

I mean like he was alive during colonial times but he I feel like he gave complexities to characters like Shylock and Caliban even though they were like villians, even though Shakespeare gives them like stereotypical qualities. And Othello was a moor and the tragic hero. Like the british were very racist at that time (highlighted by how the other characters treat these characters), so was Shakespeare kind of like progressive for that time?

Recently purchased Othello, the penguin editition. Should I read the introduction too?

Wanna see how many I can get!

(Bonus points to whoever guesses mine, with Hanoch Levin, Lord Byron (Cain is an insane play, but so underrated), and Samuel Beckett)

Edit: Please tell me if I'm wrong and give me one clue before telling me the answer

Edit 2: my current score: out of 20 where I have confirmations, I got 5 on the first try, 9 complete misses, and 6 on the second try

I'm not very good at it, but it's also hard! No one has guessed mine yet, I'm giving y'all 3 more tries before I add a clue

Edit 3: Wow, there's a lot! Sorry if I haven't gotten to you yet, this post did make my bus ride from Rome to Florence pass really nicely:) I am trying to get to everyone:))

Since I'm guessing for all of you, I'm going to let you guess my top five:)

5. Julius Caesar ( u/LizHazZoe guessed it:)

Hello, I want to get into King Lear as I've loved watching and reading Macbeth so i've wondered which of those 2 versions is the best to watch and can i read the original play alongside watching it?

pretty much as the title states, i checked amazon prime but much like everything else on there, it's behind a paywall.

Hey everyone,

I’m a solo indie iOS developer and longtime Shakespeare fan, and I recently released an app called The Bard’s World: Shakespeare.

Please, if you dislike the app or this post, I ask only one thing:
Deliver your criticism in the form of a Shakespearean insult.

App Store link (only on iOS for now)

I originally started building it because most Shakespeare apps felt either:

• too academic,
• outdated,
• or just giant walls of text.

So I tried to create something that feels more like an interactive Shakespeare universe than a traditional study app.

Some of the things included:

• all 37 plays + 154 sonnets
• AI chats with 50 Shakespeare characters
• Shakespearean insult generator
• relationship maps
• interactive map of locations from the plays
• daily quotes and trivia
• iambic pentameter scanner
• vocabulary explorer
• study guides and scene navigation

A few things I cared about a lot:

• everything works offline
• no ads
• no tracking
• no account required
• no subscriptions

The AI character chats also run fully on-device because I really wanted the app to feel private and self-contained.

I’d genuinely love feedback from people who enjoy Shakespeare, literature, theatre, classics, or educational apps.

Some things I’m wondering:

• Which feature sounds genuinely useful vs gimmicky?
• Is the “chat with Hamlet/Lady Macbeth/etc.” idea compelling?
• What would make you actually keep an app like this installed long-term?
• Are there features students/teachers would want that I’m missing?

I’m trying to improve it based on real feedback instead of just building in isolation.

Happy to answer any questions about the app or the development process too.

So Much Ado is my favorite play- got me into Shakespeare and no play has topped it yet (though some histories did come close). Obviously, it's a very popular play too, and I've seen a lot of interesting interpretations of it (the gender dynamics in the play are always interesting to explore).

But something that I always felt was underappreciated is how well this play catches the feeling of coming home for a break from war.

The balance of nothing and everything happening all at once is just perfect for it.

I feel the play is a lot more interesting if you don't let the shadow of war leave the play after the first scene (as a lot of productions do). Seeing it as an explanation of the characters' more ridiculous actions- if the war is constantly living at the back of your mind, of course you'd busy yourself with some low stakes overly convoluted fun. If it's waiting to come out if a moment of silence goes on for too long, why would you allow it to?

Of course every emotion is heightened! Of course everything spirals so quickly.

Also, from personal experience, I find the way the characters move from the more intense part of the plot to leisure very relatable (the need to both do everything you thought about at any moment before you run out of time, and get enough rest in at the same time is so realll).

I think this reading fixed the problems I had with Claudio and Don John.

I get people connecting the military in Much Ado to macho masculinity (as I said before, I find gender based readings very interesting here), but I feel the more literal reading I'm talking about results in more likable characters, and a more unique representation of war.

Finally, I'll add that a staging detail I'd have in a dream production is Beatrice putting on her own uniforms during the start of the love confession part of 4.1.

There would need to be a scene break after Hero, Leonato, and the friar exist, which there sometimes is, anyway. But I really think it works- the tone got darker, the thin shield of fun broke, so the war came back. It would give more weight to Benedick finally blurting out that he loves her, and logistically it works, with Beatrice being gone for a little while afterwards (extra points if you switch the order of 5.2 and 5.3- especially because that way the tone gets lighter again just as she comes back.) It would also make 5.2 just that bit nicer, and would help the impression that more time passes between the first and second wedding

So, yeah :) would like to hear more thoughts

Many scholarly works mention that Laertes is returning to University in France, but there's no actual mention of him being a student in the play. Am I missing something? Is it just an assumption?

The 11th fairway of the Garrison Golf Club in the Hudson Valley is now a beauty spot dedicated to the Bard — all thanks to a wealthy benefactor