Shakespeare’s Happy Endings

A comic take on Shakespeare: Professor Simon Starkman has been given a chance to present a new take on Shakespeare, including Romeo and Juliet with a happy ending, Othello without sex and violence and a musical version of Macbeth. A comic account, part documentary, part staged performance, of some of the bowdlerisations of Shakespeare’s plays in the history of the theatre. Presenter Patrick Barlow talks of a 1681 production of King Lear in which the Fool is removed and Cordelia is married off to Edgar, and a production of Romeo and Juliet in which the lovers live happily ever after, a version which played on alternate nights with the original tragedy.

Access

Licence: ERA Licence required

Content
  • Type: Entertainment
  • Channel: BBC Four
  • Duration: 59'28''
  • Broadcast date: 2005
Usage

UK only
Staff and students of licensed education establishments only
Cannot be adapted

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  • Shakespeare Archive Resource