Shakespeare Magazine 9

At last! A magazine with all the Will in the world 

SHAKESPEARE 

FREE 

Issue 9 

TOM 

HIDDLESTON 

From Henry V to Coriolanus: 

Say Hello to Shakespeare’s 

Secret Weapon! 

Annus 

Horribilis 

James Shapiro on 

1606: William 

Shakespeare and 

the Year of Lear 

Special issue 

SHAKESPEARE AT THE CINEMA 

Coriolanus 

Hiddleston 

finds his 

killer instinct 

Macbeth 

A movie epic with 

Michael Fassbender 

and Marion Cotillard 

Bill 

Shakespearean 

comedy from the 

Horrible Histories crew 

Hamlet 

Benedict 

Cumberbatch 

on the big screen!

Duchess of Brittany. 

Wife of Henry IV. 

Queen of England. 

She is Joanna of Navarre. This is her unforgettable tale. 

The Queen’s Choice by Anne O’Brien is published by 

MIRA on 14 January 2016, priced £12.99 (Hardcover), 

£7.99 (eBook)

Welcome 

Welcome 

to Issue 9 of Shakespeare Magazine 

Photo: David Hammonds 

A few months ago I strolled into Bristol’s Odeon cinema, paid 

the princely sum of five pounds, took my seat in the front row, 

and settled down to watch Michael Fassbender and Marion 

Cotillard in the epic new film of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. 

One evening soon after, I drove to the Bristol Cineworld, where 

I sat enthralled by the NT Live screening of Benedict Cumberbatch 

in Hamlet. Around the same time, we could have seen brilliant 

Shakespeare spoof Bill in UK cinemas, while encore screenings of 

Tom Hiddleston’s Coriolanus were on the way. And screenings of Alex 

Hassell in Henry V and Kenneth Branagh and Judi Dench in The 

Winter’s Tale were not too far behind. 

Apart from enjoying these films and screenings myself, I’ve also 

enjoyed seeing the often delighted reactions of Shakespeare fans all 

over the world. And I’ve learned some interesting facts along the way. 

Did you know that Cumberbatch’s Hamlet was screened in 85% of 

UK cinemas? And that its biggest single audience was in Bristol? Not 

the screening I was at, but the Vue cinema over at Cribbs Causeway, 

where a staggering eight screens were packed out. 

To celebrate the rise and rise of Shakespeare on screen, this issue’s 

cover star is the superb Tom Hiddleston as Coriolanus. 

Let me also take the opportunity to wish you all a happy and 

rewarding 2016. Of course, it’s set to be another huge year for 

Shakespeare, so we’d better brace ourselves! 

Enjoy your magazine. 

Pat Reid, Founder & Editor 

SHAKESPEARE magazine 3

At last! A magazine with all the Will in the world 

SHAKESPEARE 

FREE 

Issue 9 

TOM 

HIDDLESTON 

From Henry V to Coriolanus: 

Say Hello to Shakespeare’s 

Secret Weapon! 

Special issue 

Shakespeare Magazine 

Issue Nine 

December 2015 

Founder & Editor 

Pat Reid 

Art Editor 

Paul McIntyre 

Staff Writers 

Brooke Thomas (UK) 

Mary Finch (US) 

Contributing Writers 

Helen Mears 

Kayleigh Töyrä 

Chief Photographer 

Piper Williams 

Thank You 

Mrs Mary Reid 

Mr Peter Robinson 

Ms Laura Pachkowski 

Web Design 

David Hammonds 

Contact Us 

shakespearemag@outlook.com 

Facebook 

facebook.com/ShakespeareMagazine 

Twitter 

@UKShakespeare 

Annus 

Horribilis 

James Shapiro on 

1606: William 

Shakespeare and 

the Year of Lear 

SHAKESPEARE AT THE CINEMA 

Coriolanus 

Hiddleston 

finds his 

killer instinct 

Macbeth 

A movie epic with 

Michael Fassbender 

and Marion Cotillard 

Website 

www.shakespearemagazine.com 

Newsletter 

http://tinyletter.com/shakespearemag 

Bill 

Shakespearean 

comedy from the 

Horrible Histories crew 

Hamlet 

Benedict 

Cumberbatch 

on the big screen! 

Contents 

6 Lord of war 

The landmark that was 

Tom Hiddleston’s Donmar 

Warehouse Coriolanus. 

13 

“I play the 

man I am...” 

How Shakespeare helped 

 

Hiddleston’s stellar career. 

16 Sweet prince 

 

screenings, we look again at 

Cumberbatch’s Hamlet. 

20 

Mud, blood 

and fears 

A muscular Macbeth movie 

starring Michael Fassbender 

and Marion Cotillard. 

26 

All the 

king’s men 

World-renowned Shakespeare 

scholar James Shapiro on his 

new book, 1606. 

30 A series of funny 

misunderstandings 

 

 

the people behind Bill. 

38 

Man and 

myth 

Paul Edmondson re-examines 

 

42 

“The glory of 

our art...” 

Gorgeous poster art book 

Presenting Shakespeare. 

4 SHAKESPEARE magazine

Coriolanus 

Due to massive popular demand, 

Tom Hiddleston’s Donmar Warehouse 

Coriolanus recently made a triumphant 

return to cinemas around the world. 

Our US correspondent caught it on the 

 

Words: Mary Finch 

Images: Johan Persson 

Lord 

of 

War 


Coriolanus 

“Hiddleston 

embodied the 

extremes, contrasting 

his gentle appearance 

and voice with the 

harsh and bloody 

events of the play” 

 


Coriolanus 

ast year in London, Donmar Warehouse’s staging of 

Shakespeare’s Coriolanus made headlines not only for 

a powerful production, but because British movie star 

Tom Hiddleston played the title role, continuing the 

trend of big film actors tackling the Bard. 

Set in a nondescript modern war zone, the 

design of the production heightened the 

violence of the language and the action. 

But being tall, athletic and charming, 

Hiddleston hardly seems like a brutal warhardened 

soldier. His portrayal of Hal and 

 

Virgilia (Birgitte 

Hjort SØrensen) and 

Coriolanus (Tom 

Hiddleston). 


Coriolanus 

Cominius (Peter 

De Jersey, left), 

Sicinia (Helen 

Schlesinger, above), 

Titus Lartius 

(Alfred Enoch, 

below). 


Coriolanus 

Clockwise from 

left: Menenius (Mark 

Gatiss), Alfred Enoch 

in rehearsal, Brutus 

(Elliot Levey), Valeria 

(Jacqueline Boatswain). 


Coriolanus 

“Actors remained 

on stage even when 

their characters 

were not in the 

scenes. The sparse 

set and costume 

design maintained 

a brutal simplicity” 

Henry V in The 

Hollow Crown TV 

series easily fitted 

his intense youthful 

demeanor, but Coriolanus 

seemed a bit of a stretch. 

Indeed, most of his film experience has 

been playing the soft-voiced villain (such as 

Loki in Marvel blockbusters Thor and The 

Avengers) or the smooth-faced gentleman 

(for example, Sir Thomas Sharpe in the 

recent Crimson Peak). 

But director Josie Rourke knew what 

she was doing. As is the case for so many 

Shakespeare characters, Coriolanus is a 

constant contradiction and Hiddleston 

embodied the extremes in his performance, 

contrasting his gentle appearance and voice 

with the harsh and bloody events of the play. 

Coriolanus’ downfall is both his 

hardheaded pride and his compassion for 

his mother, Volumnia (Deborah Findlay). 

Because Hiddleston captured both aspects, 

the play truly felt tragic. 

His moments of intimacy with Virgilia 

(Birgitte Hjort Sørensen) and Volumnia read 

as sincere as his roaring against the tribunes 

Coriolanus and 

 

Fraser). 

and plebeians. Hiddleston’s Coriolanus was 

adorably amusing as he solicited for voices 

from the fickle citizens, while also being 

viciously terrifying in his delivery of “I 

banish you!” 

The intimacy of the Donmar space 

translated smoothly to the cinema screen for 

those of us watching around the world. But 

it was unapologetically a piece of theatre. 

The actors remained on stage even when 

their characters were not in the scenes, and 

 


Coriolanus 

the sparse set and costume design 

maintained a brutal simplicity. 

While Hiddleston’s performance 

made the character a success, the 

supporting cast made the production 

a success. Perhaps best known as 

Mycroft in Sherlock, Mark Gatiss 

played Menenius as the politician you 

could love, while the tribunes Brutus and 

Sicinia (Elliot Levey and Helen Schlesinger) 

lent an Iago-like conspiratorial feel to their 

conniving conversations. As much as the 

audience hated them, we couldn’t help being 

drawn into their plans. 

Almost a year since seeing the 

production, many moments remain 

seared in my mind. Coriolanus dripping 

blood after the battle, physically and 

emotionally exhausted. Menenius losing his 

unquenchable optimism and determination 

12 SHAKESPEARE magazine 

Hiddleston’s 

Coriolanus at his 

blood-drenched 

zenith. 

after his failed intervention with Coriolanus. 

Aufidius (Hadley Fraser) shrewdly eyeing 

his enemy and choosing to forge a vengeful 

alliance. Volumnia facing down her son 

when all the men have given up hope. 

Ultimately, this production proves 

that Coriolanus deserves a place among 

Shakespeare’s other great tragedies. And that 

Tom Hiddleston has the power to dominate 

the stage as well as the screen.

Tom Hiddleston 

“I play the 

man I am…” 

With his 2013 portrayal of Coriolanus at London’s 

Donmar Warehouse, Tom Hiddleston was acclaimed as 

one of the world’s most exciting Shakespearean actors. 

However, the British star’s relationship with the Bard 

began much earlier in his career… 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Gathering 

Storm 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“One critic described Hiddleston 

as riding Shakespeare’s verse 

like an Olympic horseman” 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Tom Hiddleston 

“British Shakespeare legend Kenneth Branagh 

cast Hiddleston as the villainous Loki in his 

Marvel adventure Thor” 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thor 

 

The Avengers 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

King Kong 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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Hamlet 

Benedict 

Cumberbatch’s 

Hamlet captured 

the popular 

imagination and 

ignited a global 

media frenzy. 

Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, 

director Lyndsey Turner’s Hamlet 

at London’s Barbican was the 

Shakespeare event of 2015. And 

then it was screened live to cinemas 

worldwide, which meant we all got 

to see what the fuss was about… 

Words: Kayleigh Töyrä 

Sweet 

Prince 


Hamlet 

Hamlet is always going to be a tricky play 

to stage. Everyone, from theatre buffs to 

armchair Shakespeare scholars, has an idea of 

how Hamlet ought to be. Add an actor like 

Benedict Cumberbatch and naysayers start 

baying for blood – claiming his star quality 

detracts from the role, or that people are 

seeing the play for the ‘wrong’ reasons. 

Unquestionably droves of people flocked 

to London’s Barbican and to local cinemas 

to see Hamlet, but whether initial interest 

was because of Cumberbatch or not seems 

irrelevant – the production delivers a fresh 

and modern Hamlet. And, thanks to 

National Theatre Live broadcasting the play 

Hamlet (Benedict 

Cumberbatch) and 

Laertes (Kobna 

Holdbrook-Smith) 

in the eye of the 

rehearsal storm. 

in cinemas, big productions like this are now 

becoming accessible to a much wider range 

of audiences. And the screenings of Hamlet 

were a stunning success, with box office 

takings running into the millions. 

Presented by Sonia Friedman Productions 

and directed by Lyndsey Turner, the play is 

immediately distinguished by Es Devlin’s 

beautiful set design. The stage is elegant and 

suitably cinematic in its detail, and the 360 

degree filming means that NT Live audiences 

can fully appreciate the subtleties of staging. 

The ornate banquet table, the piano 

played by Ophelia (Siân Brooke), and the 

richly decorated walls evoke early twentieth- 

 


Hamlet 

“Designed by Es Devlin, the 

stage is elegant and suitably 

cinematic in its detail” 

century European decadence. We first meet 

the royal couple Gertrude (Anastasia Hille) 

and Claudius (Ciarán Hinds) hosting a 

lavish dinner party in their palace, with the 

commandeering Claudius goading Hamlet 

in front of preening courtiers. This socially 

privileged world becomes increasingly fragile 

as revolution threatens to blow it all to pieces. 

Huge piles of rubble fill its floors, while 

soldiers brandishing guns run up and down 

the palace stairs. 

Against this backdrop, Cumberbatch 

plays a Hamlet who never loses his 

Sîan Brooke’s 

portrayal of 

Ophelia resonated 

powerfully with 

audiences. 

dignity nor his intellectual poise. Indeed, 

Cumberbatch is charming as Hamlet, even 

when manipulating the earnest Horatio 

(Leo Bill). Only in the scene where Hamlet 

is playing with toy soldiers do we see 

him slightly unravelling, but he quickly 

composes himself. Though by no means 

light-hearted, the production provides ample 

opportunity for laughter in the humour of 

the foolish Polonius (Jim Norton) and the 

witty gravedigger (Karl Johnson). Anastasia 

Hille plays Gertrude superbly, capturing her 

divided loyalties, whereas Ciarán Hinds’s 

Claudius is dictatorial yet strangely attractive. 

Siân Brooke’s Ophelia is heartbreakingly 

delicate and creative, clutching a camera 

and snapping photos. Her affection for 

Hamlet seems immature and her descent into 

madness is pitiful – she slowly disappears 

from sight as she clambers over rubble. 

The onset of war and madness is not 

only mapped by the palace’s decay, but also 

by increasingly dishevelled appearances 

as imagined by costume designer Katrina 

Lindsay. Gertrude in particular loses her 

stately poise, ending up distraught in a silk 

nightie. Credit is also due to the trio of Jane 

Cox (lighting), Christopher Shutt (sound) 

and Jon Hopkins (music), who maintain the 

tempo throughout, deftly transporting us 

through the play’s charged scenes. 

The production offers a refreshing take on 

a famously complex play, giving us a Hamlet 

which reverberates with our recent 20thcentury 

history of dictators, war and madness. 

And just as refreshing is the way in which 

NT Live is bringing this all within reach of so 

many more would-be theatre-goers. 

 


Hour-Long Shakespeare 

expertly abridged for performance and as an introduction to Shakespeare’s greatest plays 

VOL ONE 

Henry IV, Part 1, Henry V AND Richard III 

VOL TWO 

Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth AND Julius Caesar 

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lines, but they convey far more than that percentage of each play’s 

theatrical power. Moreover, they belong 100% to the highest 

traditions of both teaching and performing Shakespeare’s plays’. 

Professor Michael Dobson, Director of the 

Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon- 

Avon, and Professor of Shakespeare 

Studies, University of Birmingham 

Order now from 

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Coming soon: Vol 3: A Midsummer 

Night’s Dream, 

Twelfth Night and 

The Tempest

Macbeth 


Macbeth 

Macbeth (Michael 

Fassbender) 

broods over the 

bleak Scottish 

landscape, 

Starring Michael Fassbender and Marion 

Cotillard, director Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth is 

a cinematic feast of majestic Scottish scenery 

and brutal Shakespearean violence. 

Words: Kayleigh Töyrä 


Macbeth 

eeing Macbeth on the big screen is 

rather a revelation. The potential 

of cinematically depicting the 

play’s rugged Scottish setting and 

pitched battles sets it on a different 

path from the more domestic 

explorations that have become 

current in theatres. 

This on-screen Macbeth is less about the 

twisted psychology of guilt, and more about 

the brutal Highland culture and the physical 

trappings of kingship. The initial battle 

scenes and the misty isolated village where 

Lady Macbeth (Marion Cotillard) prays and 

waits for her husband, are in stark contrast 

with the later vast cavernous palace and royal 

bedchamber. Despite its refined setting, 

Macbeth’s kingship offers him no respite – his 

crimes become more insidious, his mind more 

tortured. 

The film’s re-iteration of violence and 

blood makes for uncomfortable viewing. Yet 

the violence constantly intermingles with long 

lingering shots of the scenery, and beautiful 

music. Even battle scenes are filled with stylised 

shots, in a way that aestheticises the violence. 

In a similar way, the three screenwriters, Jacob 

Koskoff, Michael Leslie and Todd Louiso, 

maintain the aesthetics of Shakespeare’s words 

and the beautiful cadences of his verse. The 

brutality is poetic, never gratuitous. 

Michael Fassbender makes a stately, serious 

 

Fassbender and 

Cotillard as the 

regal Macbeths. 


MacbethI 

Fassbender’s 

Macbeth is every 

inch a battlehardened 

warrior. 

“Duncan’s death 

is visceral and 

messy – the perfect 

embodiment 

of the horror 

of murderous 

ambition” 


Macbeth 

“Lady Macbeth’s 

languidness is 

mesmerising. She 

makes us feel the 

terror of Macbeth 

spinning out of 

control” 

Macbeth who transforms from bloodstained 

warrior into evil tyrant. His Macbeth is 

attractively brooding and mysterious, though 

his apparent pleasure in burning Macduff’s 

family at the stake alienates him from the 

audience rather definitively. Marion Cotillard 

is beautiful as Lady Macbeth, though a few of 

her speeches lack energy and vigour. 

The interesting choice of starting the film 

with the Macbeths’ child’s funeral means that 

Lady Macbeth’s background is that of grief, 

not of blind ambition. Her languidness is 

mesmerising and, in her poised interactions 

with him, she makes us feel the terror of 

Macbeth spinning out of control. Eventually, 

the shock of Macbeth’s actions leaves Lady 

Macbeth speechless and she increasingly 

disappears from sight, dying quietly. The sexual 

chemistry between the two is convincing in its 

easy, familiar manner, and Macbeth holds her 

dead body like he once embraced her. 

Macduff is brilliantly played by Sean 

Harris, whose clipped heroism conveys his 

integrity as a staunch family man. In his final 

slaying of Macbeth in an epic sword battle, 

his pain of losing his family is transformed 

Marion Cotillard’s 

nuanced portrayal of 

Lady Macbeth was 

widely praised. 

into murderous rage. Similarly David Thewlis 

gives us the perfect King Duncan, noble yet 

diffident, whose death is visceral and messy 

– the perfect embodiment of the horror of 

murderous ambition. 

The witches (Seylan Baxter, Lynn Kennedy, 

Kayla Fallon and Amber Rissmann) are one 

of the film’s true triumphs. They appear 

and disappear in the fog like a dream and 

are a flawless blend of the supernatural and 

the earthly. The sense of female wisdom 

and regeneration, demonstrated by their 

growing brood, provides a thought-provoking 

counterbalance to the masculine powerbrokering 

of the Scottish kingdom. By giving 

young Fleance (Lochlann Harris) such a 

prominent role in the story’s ending, the film 

celebrates the witches’ powerful understanding. 

Just like the witches, it seems, the film hails 

the coming of the next generation, underlining 

the cyclical nature of a history fuelled by 

ambition and violence. 

 


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Interview: James Shapiro 

James Shapiro’s 1606 

depicts Shakespeare at 

a creative crossroads 

during a troubled time 

for England. 


Interview: James Shapiro 

All the 

King’s Men 

James Shapiro discovered so much about Shakespeare when 

exploring a single year, 1599, that he resolved to repeat the 

process. The result is a new book, 1606: William Shakespeare 

and the Year of Lear, that opens a window into Shakespeare’s 

stellar career as a King’s Man during the reign of James I. 

Interview by Pat Reid 

Author photo by Mary Creggan 

You’ve said that your 

Shakespeare journey began 

when you were visiting 

London in the late ’70s 

and you got hooked on 

watching Shakespeare plays 

– seeing literally hundreds 

of productions in the space 

of a few years. Is this what 

propelled your approach 

as an academic – taking 

Shakespeare studies out of 

the ivory tower and returning 

it to the sweaty cockpit of 

London’s theatreland? 

“I’ve never really thought of those 

two sides of my identity – cultural 

historian and theatergoer – as quite 

so separate as your question implies. 

They are really complementary. It’s 

true that I didn’t enjoy Shakespeare 

in high school and never took a 

Shakespeare course at university, 

and only became interested in 

Shakespeare after seeing scores of 

productions in the late ’70s and early 

’80s in London and Stratford-upon- 

Avon. But seeing those performances 

made me all the more eager to 

investigate the circumstances of their 

creation. I’ve spent the past three 

decades in archives on both sides of 

the Atlantic delving deeply into how 

those plays were a product of their 

times. Over the past few years I’ve 

summed the circle, and now spend 

a good deal of my time advising 

theater companies about the cultural 

pressures that helped shape the 

plays.” 

When your book 1599 came 

out a decade ago, it felt like 

a periscope into the past. 

Readers like myself were 

excited and inspired by how 

it allowed us to imagine 

Shakespeare’s life and work 

in the context of a historical 

moment. 

“I stumbled on the idea about 

writing about a single year quite 

by accident. I felt that I needed 

to learn everything I could about 

 


Interview: James Shapiro 

“James I didn’t really understand his 

English subjects, and couldn’t control 

Parliament as Elizabeth had” 

Shakespeare and his world – what he 

read, what was going on politically 

and economically at the time, 

how Shakespeare got to and from 

Stratford, even what the weather 

was like. I had to set a limit, of 

course, and the one I chose was 

chronological – stick to one year. 

I chose 1599 because that was the 

year in which the Globe Theatre was 

built. It took me 15 years to research 

and write that book, and by the end 

of that time I had a much clearer 

understanding of Shakespeare’s 

working conditions – and a finished 

manuscript that I could share 

with others equally curious about 

experiencing his world in this way.” 

In 1599 there was a strong 

sense of anxiety and paranoia 

about current events – the 

Spanish threat, unrest 

in Ireland, the Queen’s 

declining years – that fed 

into Shakespeare’s output 

during that time. In 1606, 

if anything, the situation in 

England is even worse? 

“In retrospect, the crises of 1599 

quickly passed. Within five years the 

Irish rebels were crushed, a peace 

treaty was signed with Spain, and 

the aging and childless Queen was 

succeeded by James VI of Scotland, 

who had a male heir and a spare – 

Prince Henry and Prince Charles. 

The problems of 1606 would not be 

resolved quite so easily. The Union 

of Scotland and England, which 

James so avidly promoted, would 

not occur for another century. The 

aftermath of that failed terrorist 

attempt to topple the king and 

destroy the royal family and the 

nation’s political and religious elite – 

the Gunpowder Plot – would leave 

deep scars. The great hopes for the 

Jacobean regime were all but over by 

the end of this year.” 

You’ve been a prime mover 

in encouraging readers to 

think about the Jacobean 

Shakespeare who succeeded 

the Elizabethan one. For 

many of us it’s still a 

revelation that Shakespeare 

was not only alive during the 

Gunpowder Plot, but that 

in Macbeth he apparently 

penned a response to it… 

“I began as one of those scholars 

who always spoke of Shakespeare 

as an Elizabethan, never fully 

acknowledging that he spent the 

last decade of his writing life as a 

King’s Man, in a playing company 

patronized by James himself. 

And in my book on 1599 I only 

reinforced the image of Shakespeare 

as an Elizabethan. So I’ve spent 

much of the last decade trying to 

make amends, first researching 

and presenting a three-hour BBC 

documentary on the Jacobean 

Shakespeare, then writing a book 

about a remarkable Jacobean year.” 

It’s also staggering to think 

that Macbeth, Antony and 

Cleopatra and King Lear 

could all have been written 

in the same year. Would this 

have been mind-blowing for 

Shakespeare’s colleagues and 

audiences? Or just business as 

usual in the rapid-turnover 

world of the Jacobean 

playhouse? 

“If I recall correctly, Thomas Dekker 

wrote or collaborated on ten or more 

plays in 1599. Writing three plays a 

year was not unusual for Elizabethan 

and Jacobean dramatists, nor had it 

been for Shakespeare from, say, 1595 

to 1599… But the years between 

Hamlet and Lear were fallow ones 

for Shakespeare, in which he wrote 

one or at most two plays a year. He 

tended to write plays in inspired 

bunches (and would again in 1611- 

12 when he wrote three romances 

– Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale, and 

The Tempest). We’re just fortunate 

that he found his footing in 1606 

and wrote three remarkable – and 

quite different – tragedies.” 

As an addendum to the 

Shakespeare Authorship 

Question you addressed in the 

excellent Contested Will, I’ve 

noticed a growing number 

of people who’ve chosen 

to believe Shakespeare 

was a Catholic or Catholic 

sympathiser. What do you 

think about this? While 

researching 1606, did you find 

anything that might support 

or disprove this notion? 

“Most of the evidentiary claims 

for the Catholic Shakespeare have 

been demolished of late. My own 

position is that we don’t and can’t 

know with any confidence what 

he professed. His religious beliefs 

remain hidden from us, and anyone 


Interview: James Shapiro 

who claims otherwise is reading the 

life through the work, or projecting 

onto Shakespeare things they want 

to believe about him.” 

How did your view of King 

James evolve while you 

were exploring 1606? Did he 

deserve the “wisest fool in 

Christendom” tag that history 

has given him? 

“That’s a great question. I remain 

of two minds about James. I have 

enormous respect for his intellect 

and he was surely the best writer 

ever to sit on the English throne. He 

also handled the aftermath of the 

Gunpowder Plot quite well, refusing 

to listen to those who wanted to 

crack down on his Catholic subjects. 

But as smart as he was, James was 

also profligate, didn’t much enjoy 

the day-to-day business of ruling 

(preferring to let others handle that 

while he spent his days hunting), and 

wasn’t much of a husband or father. I 

could excuse all that if he had learned 

how to become a better king, but by 

the end of 1606 it was clear that he 

didn’t really understand his English 

subjects, didn’t know how to control 

Parliament as Elizabeth had, and had 

failed to fulfill the high hopes the 

English had in him.” 

You’ve spoken eloquently 

about how the word 

‘equivocation’ changed its 

meaning for Shakespeare 

between Hamlet and Macbeth. 

Did you encounter any other 

words that underwent similar 

transformations in or around 

1606? 

“It’s really unusual for the primary 

meaning of a word to undergo such 

a sea-change in so short a timespan 

as ‘equivocation’ did in the aftermath 

of the Gunpowder Plot. There are 

other words that underwent shifts in 

meaning at this time – ‘individual’ is 

one – but those alterations typically 

take decades. It’s fascinating tracking 

these changes in the Oxford English 

Dictionary as well as in new scholarly 

tools like the database Early English 

Books Online.” 

You’ve recently been involved 

in taking a production of 

Macbeth into prisons in New 

York. This made me think two 

things: how admirable to bring 

Shakespeare to some of the 

most disenfranchised people 

in the US – and weren’t you 

afraid a riot would break out? 

“Having spent a few afternoons in 

prisons and jails of late, I’m struck 

time and again by the graciousness 

that those who are incarcerated have 

extended to the actors. I’ve never felt 

threatened or scared. Jails, especially 

ones like Rikers Island in New York, 

can be awful places to be imprisoned. 

But the Public Theater’s Mobile 

Shakespeare Initiative, which visits 

these facilities, has never had anything 

but the warmest reception. Like 

all playgoers at good productions, 

inmates are quickly engrossed. And 

unlike performances in the West End 

or Broadway, in prisons the magic of 

Shakespeare is never disrupted by the 

ringing of cell phones.” 

Macbeth is the only one 

of Shakespeare’s works to 

contain either the word 

‘rhinoceros’ or the word 

‘rhubarb’. What’s the most 

absurdly interesting thing 

about Shakespeare or his 

works you’ve learned from 

immersing yourself in 1606? 

“Another great question. It would 

have to be a fresh discovery that 

changes our view of Shakespeare’s 

sociability. Until this past year, 

surviving anecdotes about 

Shakespeare often portray him as 

someone who shied away from 

company (at least according to reports 

by neighbors in Stratford-upon- 

Avon). But a researcher in Edinburgh 

has recently unearthed a document 

from the 1640s that describes how 

Shakespeare (along with Ben Jonson 

and fellow actors Richard Burbage 

and Laurence Fletcher “and the rest 

of their roistering associates in King 

James’s time”) had “cut” his name on 

the paneling of the famous Tabard 

Inn in Southwark. The discovery 

allows us to imagine a different sort 

of Shakespeare – a popular actor 

who enjoyed drinking with friends, 

one who was happy to join them in 

carving autographs on the wall of a 

favourite pub.” 

 

Get James Shapiro’s new book 

UK: published by Faber as 

1606: William Shakespeare and 

the Year of Lear. 

USA: published by Simon 

& Schuster as The Year of Lear: 

Shakespeare in 1606. 


Bill 

“People will 

remember the name 

Shakespeare… 

twenty years from 

now!” Mathew 

Baynton as the 

overly-optimistic 

Bill Shakespeare. 


Bill 

A Series 

of Funny 

Misunderstandings 

From the Horrible Histories crew, the 

brilliantly funny Bill 

 

 

 

Words: Brooke Thomas 


Bill 

Testing times for 

Bill Shakespeare 

and Christopher 

Marlowe (Jim 

Howick, right).Laurence Rickard and Ben 

Willbond’s vision of Shakespeare 

couldn’t be further from 

Shakespeare in Love’s swaggering 

sex god artiste. He’s also very 

different from the mature 

playwright we know from the 

ubiquitous Chandos portrait. 

Bill is more of a naive and 

bumbling dreamer type – an 

Elizabethan Del Boy, if you will. 

He’s confident that this time next 

year his talent will have made the 

family rich. Even if he’s not quite 

sure what his talent is yet. 

The Horrible Histories team channel true 

comedy greats in their first feature-length film. 

There are moments that echo Monty Python, 

others that are pure Mel Brooks on History 

of the World: Part I form, and plenty of stuff 

that’s unique to this delightful company. It’s a 

testament to the team’s comedic bravery that 

the title character, the great and wonderful 

Bard with a capital ‘B’, spends half of the film 

dressed as a tomato. 

Bill (Mathew Baynton) is a failed lute 

player. The band that throw him out, Mortal 

Coil, are more Mumford and Sons than 

‘Greensleeves’, but even they can’t handle Bill’s 

idiosyncratic style. Much to the dismay of his 

wife Anne (Martha Howe-Douglas), Bill takes 

off for “that London” hoping to sell a play. The 

only problem is he can’t write for toffee and 

plague has closed the playhouses. Anne just 

wishes he’d grow up and get a real job. 


Bill 

Bill screenwriters and 

co-stars Ben Willbond 

and Laurence Rickard 

 

 

 

 

 

Laurence: “There was one that 

got cut from a really early scene. 

Bill’s talking to Anne on the hillside 

and it was just a really geeky thing, 

it was a detail I really remembered 

from school. When he said he was 

going to get another job, she said 

‘Oh, you’re going to go work for your 

father, because people always need 

gloves.’ I love those rich little nuggets 

of history. I think there’s plenty in the 

film.” 

Ben: “There’s too much in the end. 

We couldn’t cram enough in, really.” 

Bad guys 

Walsingham 

(Laurence 

Rickard, above) 

and King Philip 

II of Spain (Ben 

Willbond, below). 

 

 

 

 

Ben: “I do like Much Ado. It’s perfect. 

It’s farcical, it has misunderstandings, 

highs and lows, assorted love 

stories…” 

Laurence: “I think that’d be good. 

I’d like to do a Merry Wives as well, 

because Falstaff is just…” 

Ben: “I was hoping that one day 

you’d give us your Hamlet.” 

Laurence: “I think you might have 

to keep hoping on that one. For the 

love of Shakespeare I will not do 

Hamlet.” 


Bill 

Multi-talented cast members 

Simon Farnaby, Jim Howick 

and Martha Howe-Douglas 

Anne Shakespeare 

(Martha Howe- 

 

herself on a certain 

iconic London stage. 

 

 

 

Simon: “No, not at all, because I think he 

would have approved. Shakespeare himself 

wrote historical plays and I’m sure not 

everything he said about, for example, King 

Richard III was true. He took dramatic licence 

and never let facts get in the way of a good 

story. We’ve kind of done the same with 

Shakespeare’s story… We fill in the gaps in a 

very creative and interesting way.” 

 

 

 

Martha: “Collecting bodies.” 

Jim: “Probably a minstrel of some kind or a 

jester. I’d be some sort of servant man, maybe 

a messenger.” 

Simon: “I’d be a – probably a prostitute. 

I mean, it’s an easy way to make some money, 

you’d get to hang around the court a bit…” 

Martha: “I think you could be an 

innkeeper.” 

Simon: “Yeah!” 

 

 

to Bill 

 

Jim: “Hamlet the Dane, I think. To give a sort 

of Horrible Histories interpretation of Hamlet 

would be quite fun.” 

Martha: “I like The Taming of the Shrew, so I 

wouldn’t mind giving that a bash.” 

Simon: “I’d like to do a comedic Richard III.” 

Jim: “Hasn’t that already been done?” 

Simon: “Has it? Who’s done it?” 

Jim: “I did it.” 

Simon: “You!” 

Jim: “But not a Shakespearean one.” 

Simon: “Yeah I’d actually do it, ‘Now is the 

winter of our discontent…’” 

Martha: “Well, now everybody’s heard that 

you never know, do you?” 

Simon: “Yeah, it might be snapped up.” 


BillI 

Queen Elizabeth I 

(Helen McCrory) faces 

a dastardly Spanish plot. 

Meanwhile, tension is growing between 

Elizabeth I (Helen McCrory) and King Philip 

II of Spain (Ben Willbond). The latter hatches 

a plot to kill the Queen and sails to England 

with a gang of villainous ne’er do wells. Before 

long, poor hapless Bill, his mentor Marlowe 

(Jim Howick), and long-suffering Anne are 

embroiled in the evil scheme. The play’s the 

thing to kill a queen, and Bill’s work is hijacked 

by the Spanish and their new accomplice the 

Earl of Croydon (Simon Farnaby). 

Even though the film is, of course, full of 

inaccuracies and anachronisms (the scheme to 

kill Queen Elizabeth resembles the gunpowder 

plot that was aimed at her successor, for 

example) it’s also rife with nerdy easter eggs. 

Many of Shakespeare’s great works are quoted 

directly, and one of the funniest lines comes 

from Kit Marlowe arranging a meet-up at The 

Bull’s Head in Deptford. “It’s quite safe,” he 

says confidently. 

It’s silly, very silly, and there’s no time 

to catch your breath between jokes. At one 

point, on a beach strewn with bodies and with 

fear of a murderous regicidal plot seizing the 

country, Walsingham declares “The game is 

 


Bill 

“It’s a delightful comedy that has 

echoes of everything from Monty 

Python to Mel Brooks” 

afoot!” while holding a disembodied leg. The 

death scene with the most heartstring-tugging 

potential is deflated by the best-timed ‘your 

mum’ joke in history. You’ll groan as often as 

you laugh, but that’s expected. The writers play 

up to it with knowing nods, and, alongside the 

more innovative humour, the groan-worthy 

puns manage to feel fresh. 

This ensemble is as used to playing 

multiple roles in a single piece as Shakespeare’s 

own actors would have been. It’s a true 

joy to watch them playing such a range of 

characters with such a dizzying array of silly 

accents. Although each and every character 

has stand-out moments, Walsingham, one of 

Larry Rickard’s parts, steals every scene he’s 

in, especially when he’s hiding. Songs are a 

staple for the Horrible Histories and ‘A Series of 

Croydon (Simon 

Farnaby) seems to 

be doing an early 

version of Macbeth 

in Bill’s play. 

Funny Misunderstandings’ brilliantly sends up 

Shakespeare’s comedic tropes. 

This is the rare kind of film that pretty 

much everyone can enjoy. Adults as well as 

kids, Shakespeare fans and people who don’t 

give a plague rat’s arse about Early Modern 

theatre. It’s a witty, irreverent send-up of all 

the period dramas we’ve seen before, as well as 

a unique comic story in its own right. A great 

family comedy and a unique addition to the 

every growing Shakespeare ‘lost years’ mythos. 

We hope that Bill isn’t the last Shakespeareinspired 

project this talented team take on. 

 


Ever wished you could walk in 

Shakespeare’s footsteps? 

Now you can! 

The Shakespeare Trail is published by Amberley Publishing, priced £20 hardback. 

It is available from bookshops, or you can order your copy online. 

ORDER NOW

Interview: Paul Edmondson 

Shakespeare scholar 

 

 


Interview: Paul Edmondson 

Man 

and 

Myth 

Paul Edmondson of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust is the 

author of , an eminently readable 

introduction to the Bard. We met Paul in Stratford-upon- 

 

centuries-old facts of Shakespeare’s life. 

Interview by Pat Reid 

 

At one point, Paul, you had 

no less than five Shakespeare 

books in the pipeline. Let’s talk 

about just one… 

“Shakespeare: Ideas in Profile is 

published by Profile Books, who 

published Eats, Shoots & Leaves. It’s 

a book about Shakespeare for the 

general reader, it’s about 40,000 

words long, and it’s divided into six 

chapters. The first is biographical, it’s 

called ‘What was his life like?’ The 

second chapter is ‘How did he write?’ 

The third chapter is ‘What did he 

write?’ The fourth chapter is called 

‘The Power of Shakespeare’, and puts 

over some of the great themes to be 

found in the works. The fifth chapter 

is called ‘Encountering Shakespeare’, 

which considers things like theatre 

reviewing and how we might do it, 

reading Shakespeare aloud, thinking 

 


Interview: Paul Edmondson 

about Shakespeare in performance 

and the various changes that a director 

may take a text through. And the final 

chapter is called ‘Why Shakespeare?’, 

which is about the after-effect of 

Shakespeare on international culture 

over the last 400 years.” 

Did you have a personal 

 

“It was an opportunity for me to really 

share my enthusiasm for Shakespeare, 

and to write the book I perhaps wish 

I’d most been able to read when I 

was setting out on the Shakespearean 

journey. It was very interesting to 

visit, as directly as I do, the whole 

world of Shakespeare biography. This 

is something I have published on 

before, and obviously it’s something 

the Birthplace Trust is very interested 

in because of the way we present 

Shakespeare – in part – through the 

five Shakespeare houses and the many 

documents we care for here from the 

time. But I revisited all of this afresh, 

and I hope for chapter one I’ve really 

brought some fresh sidelights and 

some fresh illumination on what 

might be considered old facts.” 

 

examples of how you’ve been 

 

 

“I can. One of the other books I’ve 

been working on is about New Place, 

which is the house that Shakespeare 

purchased in the centre of Stratford 

in 1597. We’ve been doing an 

archaeological dig there, so that book 

is about the dig, and that’s coming 

out from Manchester University Press 

in 2016. So perhaps that’s another 

conversation. But that is the big 

project for the Shakespeare Birthplace 

Trust in 2016, to re-present the site 

of New Place. And it’s very much a 

world-focused Shakespeare project, 

because we’re the only people who can 

do that – the site where he died, the 

site of his family home. 

“And in recent years, when you 

look at Shakespearean biography, there 

is a renaissance in how New Place 

has come to be considered as part of 

his life. And one of the things I have 

sought to challenge, and which our 

re-presentation of New Place seeks 

to challenge, is this old crustacean of 

biography that is ‘Oh, he left his wife 

and family and went and did all of his 

work in London, and then retired back 

to Stratford’. 

“You hear that phrase ‘retired 

back to Stratford’ every day from the 

mouths of tour guides as you walk 

around Stratford, and every time I 

hear it I wince. Because if you owned 

a house the size of New Place from as 

early in your career – he’s 33 when he 

acquires New Place – there’s no way 

you’d spend most of your time away 

from it – it just wouldn’t be how you 

would wish to live.” 

What do you think New Place 

 

“It was a status symbol, his wife and 

family were there. Other members 

of his family… his brothers never 

married, so what did they do after 

1601, after Shakespeare leased his 

father’s family home, the Birthplace, 

“I wanted to write the book I wish 

I’d been able to read when I was 

starting the Shakespeare journey” 

which he’d inherited, to become a 

pub? They had to live somewhere, 

so my guess is that the extended 

Shakespeare family were living in the 

large New Place. 

“It took three to four days to 

travel from Stratford to London, and 

one of the things I wanted to do in 

my opening chapter is to build up a 

picture – and I’m not the first to do 

this – to emphasise Shakespeare as a 

literary commuter, somebody who 

got back to Stratford when he could. 

Here, one can start to imagine what 

his library looked like, a place for 

his books, a centre of stillness, to get 

away from it all, from the hectic life 

of professional theatre. And a place of 

retreat, to write and to think.” 

 

is quite different to how he’s 

 

“It’s all too tempting to imagine 

Shakespeare as an inky-fingered Joseph 

Fiennes, dashing off a sonnet, writing 

the next speech at the drop of a hat, 

and actually nothing can be further 

from the truth. When you look at 

the works carefully, he had books 

around him when he was writing 

some of those plays. Some of the plays 

directly lift from the source material – 

reshaping it, of course. I write about 

this in ‘How did he write?’ – the 

transforming power of his imagination 

on the sources he was using, and the 

sources he needed. 

“So New Place for me is a place 

of books, a place of writing, and 

therefore a place that Shakespeare used 

as a literary base as well as a family 

home. Over the time he was working 

in London, isn’t it interesting that he 

doesn’t have a permanent home in 

London for the whole of those 20 or 

30 years? He’s moving around different 

parishes… He does buy the Blackfriars 

Gatehouse towards the end of his life – 

of course, he didn’t know it was going 


Interview: Paul Edmondson 

to be the end of his life. But he doesn’t 

seem to have lived there, it seems to 

have been a financial investment. So 

that’s definitely something I wanted to 

point on.” 

You mentioned that you’ve 

 

some of the stories about 

 

18th century… 

“When we look at Rowe, three really 

interesting things still resonate with 

me from Nicholas Rowe’s account. 

One is that around about 1594 the 

Earl of Southampton gives him a 

thousand pounds. Which is amazing 

and fascinating. It would explain 

how he could afford the shares in the 

Lord Chamberlain’s Men around that 

time. It would also explain how he 

could afford to buy New Place a few 

years later. And then, of course, when 

his father dies, he makes even more 

financial investments, which suggests 

his father was not impoverished, as 

people often say. Maybe he had money 

from the wool dealings. This has been 

suggested by the scholar David Fallow 

from the University of Exeter, and I 

mention him in my book. 

“The other two things from Rowe, 

though, are the deer poaching at 

Charlecote – I have no immediate 

objection that that shouldn’t be true in 

some way. And [the third is] William 

Davenant, who liked to say he was 

Shakespeare’s illegitimate son. So I 

look a little bit afresh at those.” 

And you look into some of the 

more ‘nuts and bolts’ aspects 

 

“The first chapter is also about his life 

in the professional theatre, and I think 

that’s fascinating, to look at how his 

output was shaped by the demands 

of the company. And then ‘How 

did he write?’ is about the books he 

needed in order to produce the work, 

the actors he was working with, the 

stage conditions that affected what 

he was able to produce, as well as the 

shaping power of his imagination 

using the sources… Even down to 

him using home-made ink from oak 

apples, mixed with water or wine or 

vinegar – you know, and having to 

sharpen his quill every so often. It’s the 

kind of hardware that we find almost 

impossible to imagine now, but that’s 

what Shakespeare had to use. 

As for the actual content of 

Shakespeare’s plays, how do 

 

“‘What did he write?’ looks at things 

such as how the canon divides up 

generically – and why that should be 

the case, and is that helpful? – and the 

plays he worked on in collaboration 

with other people. 

“And I look in that chapter 

especially at The Two Gentlemen 

of Verona. The play is often talked 

about as a slight work, but we can 

see the origins of what Shakespeare 

then goes on to produce. The theme 

that Proteus is the emergence of the 

malcontent figure – Iago, Richard 

III, Iachimo and so on. And so I look 

at The Two Gentlemen of Verona as 

carrying essential DNA for the rest of 

Shakespeare’s output. That was a really 

lovely thing to be able to write about 

– I’ve always loved that play, I once 

played Valentine in it. And it’s nice to 

write about the dog, Crab, as well…” 

 

Shakespeare: Ideas in Profile by 

Paul Edmondson is published by 

Profile Books, priced £8.99 


Presenting Shakespeare 

“The Glory 

of our Art…” Macbeth 

(III, 5) 

Containing 1,100 posters from productions past and present, new book 

Presenting Shakespeare’s global sweep encompasses the strange, the 

disturbing and the intoxicatingly beautiful range of Shakespeare-inspired 

art, illustration and design. Here are just a few examples… 


Presenting Shakespeare 

Romeo and Juliet, 

Theater Alnwick, US, 

1820. d: n/a. 

Much Ado About 

Nothing, Libanon 

on Stage, Charity 

Theatre of the Order 

of Malta, DE, 2010. 

ad/d/p: Alexander von 

Lengerke. 

Much Ado About 

Nothing, Portland 

Community College, 

US, 2014. 

ad: Cece Cutsforth, 

d/p: Anthony Catalan 

 


Presenting Shakespeare 

Julius Caesar, 

Habima National 

Theatre, IL, 1961. 

d: Dan Resinger. 


Presenting Shakespeare 

Richard III, Theatre de la 

Renaissance, FR, 2010. 

ad/d/p: Cedric Gatillon. 

Hamlet, Teatr Ochoty, 

PL 1985. ad/d: Andrzej 

Pagowski (Dydo Poster 

Collection). 

A Midsummer 

Night’s Dream, Teatr 

Dramatyczny, PL, 

1981. d: Eugeniusz Get 

Stankiewicz (Dydo 

Poster Collection). 

Presenting Shakespeare is available 

now from Princeton Architectural 

Press. Order your copy here: 


Contributors 

Brooke Thomas is a freelance writer 

and small business owner based 

in London. She found her love of 

Shakespeare at university and now 

runs Past & Prologue, a Shakespeareinspired 

clothing company. She spent 

most of her MA in Shakespeare Studies 

scouring various pop-culture mediums 

for references to the bard – a habit that 

has endured beyond graduation. 

Find her on Twitter @LiterallyGeeked 

Mary Finch Our US Staff Writer 

studied English at Messiah College 

in Pennsylvania, and is furthering her 

obsession at Mary Baldwin College 

in Virginia, earning her Masters in 

Shakespeare and Performance. Her 

interest in the Bard ranges from 

the theatrical to the educational to 

the literary. Besides William, Mary 

has a strong affinity for succulents, 

typography, and limericks. Find her 

on Twitter: @DaFinchinator 

Meet thy makers... 

Just some of the contributors to this issue of Shakespeare Magazine 

Kayleigh Toyra is a commercial 

copywriter by day, poet and Shakespeare 

lover by night. Having grown up in 

Finland, Shakespeare holds a special 

place in her heart as she connected with 

British culture through Shakespeare. She 

also loves how different cultures always 

find their own meanings in Shakespeare’s 

words. She specialised in Shakespeare 

during her MA at Bristol University, and 

became fascinated by local Shakespearean 

performance history. 

Find her on Twitter @KayleighToyra 

Helen Mears fell into bardolatry 

during her teenage years and has 

never recovered. She is a volunteer 

steward at Shakespeare’s Globe, 

which ensures a regular diet of the 

Bard. She teaches English, Film and 

Media at Suffolk New College and is 

a specialist in teaching Shakespeare 

using active methods. Her favourite 

Shakespearean actor is Jamie Parker 

and her favourite plays are the Second 

History Tetralogy. She hopes to 

finish her Masters in the Advanced 

Teaching of Shakespeare very soon. 

Find her on Twitter @hipster_hels 


Next issue 

We hope you’ve enjoyed Issue Nine of Shakespeare Magazine. 

Here’s a taste of what we have coming up next time… 

Shakespeare’s First Folio 

Emma Smith takes us between the pages of the book 

that started it all. 

 

Kenneth Branagh 

Actor. Director. Icon. King Ken talks about Judi Dench 

and The Winter’s Tale. 

 

Parlez-vous Le Bard? 

 

Yes, it’s the Shakespeare Guide to Paris… 

What just happened? 

Behind the scenes of web series How Shakespeare 

Changed My Life.

Shakespeare Magazine 9

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