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...Hermia loves Lysander and Helena loves Demetrius – but Demetrius is supposed to be marrying Hermia… When the Duke of Athens tries to enforce the marriage, the lovers take refuge in the woods and wander into the midst of a dispute between...

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...Fusing music, dance and some serious comedy, Emma Rice’s first production as Artistic Director brings the Dream crashing into the Globe’s magical setting. Naughty, tender, transgressive and surprising, it promises to be a festival...

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...Year of Release: 2016 In the tyrannical court of Athens, the pitiless dictator Theseus plans his wedding to Hippolyta, a prisoner of war, and young Hermia is sentenced to death by her own father. Meanwhile, in the rickety township...

The Arden Shakespeare, 1979

The Arden Shakespeare Second Series

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Acts: 5, Scenes: 9, Roles: Total (22), Female (4), Male (17), Unassigned (1)

...Midsummer was a significant part of the early modern calendar, falling between 21st and 24th June. The point of the year when the sun is at its highest in relation to the equator, by Shakespeare’s time, the festival was a Christianized...

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...Shakespeare combined his love of theater with Greek mythology and the supernatural to create what is arguably his most playfully imaginative work. From love potions to bizarre transformations to the unforgettable play-within-a-play...

The Arden Shakespeare, 2017

The Arden Shakespeare Third Series

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Acts: 5, Scenes: 8, Roles: Total (24), Female (4), Male (13), Unassigned (5)

...Often described as one of Shakespeare's 'problem plays', Measure for Measure explores issues of mercy and justice in corrupt Vienna. The Duke makes his strict moralistic deputy, Angelo, temporary leader of Vienna, while he disguises himself...

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...Helena loves the arrogant Bertram, and when she cures the King of France of his sickness, she claims Bertram as her reward. But her brand-new husband, flying from Helena to join the wars, attaches two obstructive conditions...

The Arden Shakespeare, 2018

The Arden Shakespeare Third Series

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Acts: 5, Scenes: 24, Roles: Total (19), Female (5), Male (14), Unassigned (0)

...In All's Well That Ends Well, Helen, a lowly ward, risks her life to satisfy her boundless love for Bertram, a count and ward to the King of France. Following him to Paris, she concocts an endangering plan to win the King of France's favour...

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...Year of Release: 2015 Reason and judgement prove no match for the tsunami of mutual passion engulfing Mark Antony, one of the three joint rulers of the Roman republic, and Cleopatra, the seductive queen of Egypt. Surrendering everything...

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...Virtue and vice, transcendent love and realpolitik combine in Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare’s greatest exploration of the conflicting claims of sex and power, all expressed in a tragic poetry of breathtaking beauty and magnificence...

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...Following Caesar’s assassination, Mark Antony has reached the heights of power. Now he has neglected his empire for a life of decadent seduction with his mistress, Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt. Torn between love and duty, Antony’s military...

The Arden Shakespeare, 1995

The Arden Shakespeare Third Series

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Acts: 5, Scenes: 42, Roles: Total (38), Female (6), Male (32), Unassigned (0)

...Antony and Cleopatra rival Romeo and Juliet for the title of most famous lovers in Western drama. Shakespeare’s play, probably written around 1606-7 (though not appearing in print until the First Folio of 1623), reflects the popularity...

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...As You Like It runs the glorious gamut of pastoral romance: cross-dressing and love-notes; poetry and brilliant conversation; gentle satire, slapstick and passion Stage director: Thea Sharrock. Screen director: Kriss Russman. Featuring...

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..."LOVE IS MERELY A MADNESS" Rosalind is banished from Court. With her best friend Celia by her side, she journeys to a world of exile. But not before catching the eye of love-struck Orlando, who is also forced from the Court into the Forest....

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...Love triumphs in As You Like It, Shakespeare’s joyous comic adventure! Rosalind, arguably Shakespeare’s greatest female character, is banished from court and follows her exiled father into the untamed Forest of Arden. Disguised as a man...

The Arden Shakespeare, 2006

The Arden Shakespeare Third Series

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Acts: 5, Scenes: 23, Roles: Total (25), Female (5), Male (20), Unassigned (0)

...In the Forest of Arden where the cross-dressed Rosalind meets her lover Orlando, folklore meets with classical ideals, the pastoral with ribaldry, and love poetry with parody and satire. As You Like It plays witty games with gender roles...

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...Caius Martius Coriolanus is a fearless soldier but a reluctant leader. His ambitious mother attempts to carve him a path to political power, but he struggles to change his nature and do what is required to achieve greatness. In this new...

The Arden Shakespeare, 2013

The Arden Shakespeare Third Series

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Acts: 5, Scenes: 29, Roles: Total (15), Female (3), Male (12), Unassigned (0)

...Coriolanus was first published in the First Folio of 1623; we have no recording of a first performance contemporary with Shakespeare. As a result, dating the play has proven to be a difficult task, with most modern critics placing...

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...Britain is in crisis. Alienated, insular and on the brink of disaster. Can it be saved? An ineffectual Queen Cymbeline rules over a divided dystopian Britain. Consumed with grief at the death of two of her children, Cymbeline’s judgement...

The Arden Shakespeare, 1969

The Arden Shakespeare Second Series

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Acts: 5, Scenes: 28, Roles: Total (22), Female (3), Male (18), Unassigned (1)

...The intricate plot of Cymbeline folds comic, romantic, tragic and historical modes into a bittersweet and experimental play. Though listed under the ‘Tragedies’ in its first appearance in the 1623 First Folio, the play’s diverse elements...