Shakespeare Unlimited

King Lear, III, 2. Johann Heinrich Ramberg. 19th century. Folger Shakespeare Library. Well-known Shakespeare characters such as King Lear and Hamlet suffer (or appear to suffer) from madness — and early American psychiatrists took note. Observations drawn from literature began…

A few of favorite quotes from some of the directors we’ve had on the Folger’s Shakespeare Unlimited podcast since 2014.

Our top Shakespeare Unlimited podcast episodes from 2019 feature interviews with authors, directors, actors, and scholars. Happy listening! 1. Deborah Harkness: A Discovery of Witches In 1994, Deborah Harkness was doing research at Oxford University’s Bodleian Library when she stumbled…

Revisit some of our most popular 2018 Shakespeare Unlimited podcast episodes, from Shakespeare’s wife Anne Hathaway to a conversation with actor Derek Jacobi to the tyrants in Shakespeare’s plays.

From rudeness to gross behavior, Ruth Goodman’s book “How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England” sheds some surprising light on what bad behavior really meant, including the reason that Shakespeare had Sampson threaten to “bite my thumb” at another character…

The TV series “Shakespeare Uncovered” returns this Friday, October 12, with richly visual episodes. Watch video previews of Helen Hunt on “Much Ado About Nothing” and F. Murray Abraham on “The Merchant of Venice.”

In her new novel “The Shakespeare Requirement,” Julie Schumacher continues her satirical commentary on the humanities in academia.

This excerpt from a new book by Katherine West Scheil explores the 19th-century transformation of the Anne Hathaway Cottage into a tourist destination.

In our Shakespeare Unlimited podcast, now celebrating its 100th episode, you can hear so many surprising and often first-person stories by scholars, musicians, authors, actors, and others on all manner of Shakespearean topics.

Today, we’re releasing the 100th episode of our podcast, Shakespeare Unlimited. Since 2015, when we kicked things off with an episode about Nelson Mandela and the Robben Island Shakespeare, we’ve met the people who answer letters to Juliet, chatted with rappers (on more…

This excerpt from Ayanna Thompson’s book explores Peter Sellars’s “uniquely American take on William Shakespeare” and his 1980 production of King Lear.

Read an excerpt from actor Paterson Joseph’s book about playing the role of Brutus in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s acclaimed 2012 production of Julius Caesar.