How Shakespeare used poetry to heighten the dramatic effect. How Polysyllables trip easily off the tongue while monosyllabic lines and word are packed with thoughts and feelings. Poetic phrases which say more than what they actuyally describe. The hidden poetry in seeminly unpoetic lines. The word 'time' and 'death.' Contrast and sudden changes in Shakespeare.

This program is about the Elizabethan relish of words -- their resonances, onomatopoeia, alliteration and antithesis. How Shakespeare uses language to define character, and how his characters use heightened language to achieve the intentions.

What is blank verse? Why is it better for drama than other verse forms? How should it be read? In the course of trying out different stresses, the actors discover how Shakespeare uses antithesis, short lines, end-stopped lines, and pauses in the middle of a line.

Under John Barton's direction, two members of the Royal Shakespeare Company explore Shakespeare's character Shylock to demonstrate how shakespeare develops a character and the multiplicity of ways in which his characters can be understood. Given the same text from The merchant of Venice and the same direction, the different readings of the part demonstrate the infinite variety of Shakespeare's work.

An interesting and informative educational resource, The Themes of Shakespeare is a major new series which explores the most important issues arising from the study of Shakespeare. Including extracts from the new feature film version of 'Macbeth', starring Jason Connery and Helen Baxendale, as well as productions and performers of the Stratford Shakespeare Company, Includes specially filmed segments of Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Othello, Hamlet, Romeo...

Members of the Royal Shakespeare Company present a workshop before a television studio audience to demonstrate how they rehearse and learn to perform Shakespeare's plays.

Follows the trials and tribulations of a busload of tourists who get stranded in an abandoned mining town in the middle of the African desert. After a fine bout of partying, they fall prey to the heat, isolation, and fear of death that pushes them to the extremes of introspection and emotional exploration. And in a beautifully futile gesture, they begin to rehearse a production of Shakespeare's King Lear, which helps pry open a few fragile psyches....

Who was Shakespeare? Was it really Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford? This video examines the background for this theory.

The beach: A young backpacker in Thailand searching for something different learns of the existence of an idyllic island which is not even on the map. Once he reaches the island, he discovers a secret commune of international drifters living off fish and pot. The man's arrival coincides with growing tension between factions, leading to the commune's violent demise. The man in the iron mask: In 1638 Queen Anne of France gives Birth to a boy, who will...