For a Senecan-styled tragedy of inordinate bloodshed, things work out remarkably well for the characters who survive John Marston’s 1602 Antonio’s Revenge...
Category: Essays
Self-harm as spectacle in “Measure for Measure” (Donmar Warehouse, 2018)
Sometimes a play can be so callous, so poorly-judged, so utterly tone-deaf that one isn't sure whether to laugh or cry. On this occasion, however, my mind is rather made up.
Fatherly and Fearsome: the Ghost in Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet (1996)
Does Branagh's "Hamlet" offer audiences the most complete and compelling version of the Ghost to be put to film. I think so.
Fashioning Death: Anne Boleyn, James French, and the Last Dying Speech
From Anne Boleyn to a 20th Century murderer from Oklahoma, it seems that last dying speeches are all the fashion...
“I never got that letter”: writing “Curley’s wife”
That lower-case "w" in "Curley's wife" stands for some terrible, terrible things. It would be nice to capitalise it, to give it the appearance of a name, to treat it as a title rather than as an insult. But we can't...
‘Fake news!’: Julius Caesar and the “alternative facts” of Shakespeare’s Rome
Friends, readers, countrymen - lend me your ears! In what follows I will attempt to link the tragedy of Julius Caesar to: a grammar school education and rhetorical devices, the death of Queen Elizabeth, the lives of a penniless troupe of actors, early modern medical theory, and tenuous references to Donald Trump’s “alternative facts”. Let’s see how this goes.
(A Couple of Reasons Why) The “Hamlet” Bad Quarto is Fantastic and Deserves More Love
Critics are starting to come around to the idea that the "Bad Quarto" of "Hamlet" may have something worthwhile to offer after all - and it's a good thing too!
