King john and henry viii (Bloomsbury Publishing)

From the Royal Shakespeare Company - a fresh new edition of two of Shakespeare's most unusual and provocative histories This book includes: * Illuminating introductions to King John and Henry VIII aby award-winning scholar Jonathan Bate * The two plays - with clear explanatory notes on each page * Helpful scene-by-scene analyses and key facts about both plays * An introduction to Shakespeare's career and the Elizabethan theatre * Rich explorations of approaches to staging both plays featuring photographs of key productions of each The most enjoyable way to understand a Shakespeare play is to see it or participate in it. This book presents a historical overview of two of Shakespeare's classical plays King John and Henry VIII in performance, recommends film versions, takes a detailed look at specific productions and includes interviews with three leading Directors - Gregory Doran, Josie Rourke and Gregory Thompson - so that we may get a sense of the extraordinary variety of interpretations that are possible - a variety that gives Shakespeare his unique capacity to be reinvented and made 'our contemporary' four centuries after his death.