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Last Update:
October 14, 2025


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No Groundhog Day for Me
Amid the cascade of work and responsibilities I've been working through the past 12 months (after I announced Shakespeareances was back from hiatus, of course), I received an email from Australia praising my commentary, "The Worst is Never the Worst until the Worst: Finding Comfort in Edgar in Times of Woes." I wrote that in December 2018. Prescient words then considering my wife's subsequent descent into Alzheimer's.
And still, I'm not at the worst.
But still, I carry on.
More reviews and interviews coming.
Stay tuned.
— Eric Minton, May 31, 2025

Commentary

In Memoriam: Carol Adele Kelly. 1931-2024: A Love of Words, Words, Words

Henry V's Vietnam War: A True Band of Brothers and Sisters

The Tragicomedy of Errors:
A Passion Play

As Flies to Wanton Boys Are We to the Gods

The Comeback: A Tragedy Overtakes a Blissful Comedy

Time's Passages: My Love's Labor Now My Winter's Tale

Interviews

A Euphoric Juliet: Where Under-the-Skin Happens

An "Endlessly Fascinating" Richard III: DruidShakespeare's Aaron Monaghan Channels a Memory and the Real Richard

Fiasco Theater: How Downsizing Leads To Supersizing Shakespeare

Olivia and Maria: From Mourning to Light, Tonya Beckman Plays through Two Twelfth Nights

Richard III and Queen Margaret: Four Years, Two Immortal Enemies

Shakespeare at the Dawn of a New Generation: A Day with Brooklyn Technical High School Students

On Stage

Macbeth: War's Tomorrow

Pericles: A Quadruple-Quality Life

Desperate Measures: Riffing on a Problem Play's Problems

A Commedia Romeo and Juliet: Fools Revisit a Landmark Production

As You Like It: A Magical Mystical Tour de Force
(PLUS: Beatles Songbook)

The Taming of the Shrew: Two Outcasts Cast Their Lots With Each Other

On Screen

The Tragedy of Macbeth: Putting On the Putin

Shakespeare Uncovered 2: Second Set of Mini-Documentaries Reveals Bard's Brilliance with Filmmaking to Match

Still Dreaming: Past the Wit of Man to Say What Dream it Was

Twelfth Night: What Achieved Greatness Was Born Great

Romeo and Juliet: Too Dumb for Tweens

The Hollow Crown—Henry V: The Crown Comes Full Circle

In Print

The Year of Lear: His Life in His Time

The Book of William: Book a Journey through First Folios

Shakespeare Beyond Doubt: Beyond Even Unreasonable Doubt Book Establishes Shakespeare's Authorship

Hobson Woodwards' A Brave Vessel: The True Tale of the Castaways Who Rescued Jamestown and Inspired Shakespeare's The Tempest

Stephen Landrigan and Qais Akbar Omar's Shakespeare in Kabul

On Air

Much Ado About Nothing: The Couple in Love, With Their Own Selves

The Tempest: A 1612 Space Oddity

Hamlet: Good Radio vs. Good Shakespeare: With This Hamlet It's a Drawl

Midsummer Night's Dream: To See a Voice and Hear a Face With Fairy Magic and Bottom's Roar

Romeo and Juliet: The Tone Is Out of Joint

Bardroom

King Lear's Sad Time:
What Must We Obey?

Racial Casting and Theatrical Sacrilege

Gender Politics in Staging Shakespeare

And Also

2018 In Review and Top 25 + 5 Shakespeareances

Top 40 Shakespeareances


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Play on!

And Some Find Greatness
Between the Lines

Vy, wearing a jellow jacket, white blouse, orange patterend dress, white socks, plain shoes, and a wide brim hat stands with both hands holding a battered suticase in front of her as the ensemble behind her leans out with outstreched hands creating a starburst effect. Photo by Daniel RaderWilliam Shakespeare and Duke Ellington were collaborating long before Sheldon Epps and Cheryl L. West brought them together for Play On!, a musical about a love triangle involving a Duke, a regal Lady, and a woman disguised as a man as their go-between messenger. The musical transplants Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night to the Harlem Renaissance (1920s–1930s) with a score comprising Ellington tunes, andin the hands of director Lili-Anne Brown and the feet, legs, and voices—oh! the voices—of the cast performing the musical at Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia, recently closed out a mostly sold-out run last weekend. Maybe for Shakespeare purists it won’t mean a thing if it ain’t Bard writing, but aside from being fun stuff and great Ellington music, Play On! captures and even enhances some of the universal humanism Twelfth Night explores. For the complete review, click here.

With sidebar:

Such Sweet Thunder

The Duke Finds Kindred Spirit in The Bard

Cover of the album, "Duke Ellington with his orchestra, Such Sweet Thunder (Dedicatd to the Shakespearen Festival, Stratford, Ontario)" with a picture of Ellington in partial light at a piano, and a column of liner notes to the right.In 1956, the four-year-old Stratford, Canada, Shakespeare Festival invited Duke Ellington and his orchestra to perform a series of concerts. Ellington's interaction with the festival's Shakespeare practitioners inspired him and his orchestrator, Billy Strayhorn, to compose "Such Sweet Thunder," a suite of 12 songs based on Shakespeare's characters and the Bard himself. Ellington premiered the piece the following year. Ellington certainly knew Shakespeare, based on his insights in literally playing the playwright's characters. For the full review, click here.

Merry Wives

Today's Merry Wives; a Timeless Falstaff

Madam Page wearing a bare-shoulder orange patterned blouse and orange and red  and white geometric patterned dress looks over at the two letters Madam ford, in baggy blue blouse, a dozen or more colorful bead necklaces hanging about her neck, and tight purple and black patterend yoga pants. Behind are signs of braided hair on the wall. and at the top a sign that says "God is Good all the time"It plays like the premiere of a new reality series franchise. Merry Wives (of Harlem) stars Anne Page, Johnny Falstaff, and the merry wives, Madam Nkechi Ford and Madam Ekue Page, streaming now at the Shakespeare Theatre Company's Harman Hall in Washington, D.C. Sounds ridiculous? So is the play it's built on, William Shakespeare's The Merry Wive's of Windsor. As adaptations of Shakespeare’s works go, Jocelyn Bioh’s is one of the most thoroughly Shakespearean transfers to the 21st century I've seen of any of the Bard’s 16th century plays. A big reason: Shakespeare’s great comic creation, Sir John Falstaff, gets a thoroughly modern rendition in the performance of Jacob Ming-Trent, destined to be one of the most indelible Falstaff's romping through my memories to the end of my time on this earth. For the full review, click here.

THE COMEDY OF ERRORS

Blackfriars Vet Brews Brilliant Circe’s Cup

Dromio of Syracuse on tiptoes with hands upraised and leaning back crying out, wearing blue vest and hat, blue striped kneepants with white stockings and work boots as Antopholus of Syracuse squats down, looking at the audience while pointing at Dromio and wearing a fancy purple vest over white shirt and cream kneepants with white stockings and stylish shoes.Chris Johnston, always a great musician and evolving actor in the time I saw him in American Shakespeare Center productions at the Blackfriars Playhouse from 2011 to 2019, returned to the Blackfriars as director of William Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors during this year’s spring season. In that role he helmed a production that proved to be every bit a reflection of the multitalented actor himself, delivering Shakespeare’s multidimensional text and crazier than crazy plot with juxtapositions of clowning and emotional breadth, slapstick and psychological depth, textual purity and meta magic. Provided a company of superior physical, textual, and character acting skills and musical talent, Johnston’s Blackfriars Playhouse directorial debut captured a decade of his own theatrical brilliance in two-hours traffic on the stage he had plied so well. For the full review, click here.

KING LEAR

A Grade A (Minus) King Lear

Lear, wearing black shirt and gray pants, stands stalwart with head raised while the Fool in houndstooth cap and wrapping Lear's brown overcoat around herself kneels on the otherwise bare stage. It's rare seeing so much joy—appreciation, yes; joy, no—after a performance of William Shakespeare's King Lear, especially after sobs floated through the Blackhouse Playhouse in Staunton, Viginia, just minutes before. This ovation, though, not only recognized the exquisite presentation of Shakespeare's richly drawn characters we had just seen; it also was visceral expression of what a member of the American Shakespeare Center's staff told me in the lobby before the show: "We're back!" For the full review, click here.

All the Devils are Here:
How Shakespeare Invented the Villain

Staring Into the True Face of Evil

Patrick Page in dark purple shirt and black vest and pants, his face glowing in a spotlight, has his arms outstretched as he leans over an open book on the table. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.A black chair sits in the corner of our basement. Made of wood with cushioned seat and back, it is starkly simple, narrow and tall. It looks like an ancient throne because it was, truly, Macbeth's throne; it even has knife slashes in the back cushion where Macbeth stabbed at his late best buddy, Banquo, tearing through his throne's vinyl cushion and cracking its wood frame. That's how much Patrick Page was into Macbeth when he played the titular part in the Shakespeare Theatre Company's 2004 production. That throne my wife and I purchased at a props and costumes sale is not the only connection I have with Page and Macbeth, as revealed in Page's one-actor show, All the Devils are Here: How Shakespeare Invented the Villain. The subtitle for Page's own play is instructive to his 90-minute show's substance. In a tour de force repertoire of performances featuring a canon's worth of villains, Page demonstrates how Shakespeare turned a stock theatrical character into real people. People like us. For the complete review, click here.

King Lear

The Eyes Have It

Patrick Page as King Lear, wearing a dark blue suit with purple tie, his jacket adorend with medals and a med on a red and blue ribbon around his neck, sits at a desk, arms folded and sporting a gentle smile. In front of him on the desk is a clock-centered pen stand. Photo by DJ Corey Photography.Somewhere in this mess of a house I live in hides my folder for the 2023 Shakespeare Theatre Company's production of William Shakespeare's King Lear starring Patrick Page in the title role. The folder contains, most importantly, my notes from the two performances I attended at the Klein Theatre: on opening night, sitting about ten rows back and to the far left; and three weeks later in my season subscription seats in the center of the fourth row. I can't reasonably write a full review of the Simon Godwin-helmed production without those notes. Relying on my memory is bound to lead to inaccurate reporting. However, some moments of Page's performance are seared indelibly into my brain: first, a scene in which he played me; last, a scene in which he played my wife, Sarah, who has Alzheimer's and now resides in a memory care center; and between those, a scene in which he played both Sarah and me.For the full review, click here.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
(Abridged) [Revised] (Again)

Completing Shakespeare’s
Complete Works At Last
(Again)

Jenny Bennett sitting on the front of the stage and wearing black shirt and pants holds up the play program  for Ginna Hoben in white t-shirt and geans, and Allie Babich in black and gray t-shirt ad red and yellow tights, both leaning over to read what Bennett is pointing at in the programYou’ve not seen all of Shakespeare until you’ve seen the Complete Works of William Shakespeare. That’s a rule I’ve derived from the times I mention seeing a Shakespeare play and oh-so-subtly brag that I've seen all 42 plays connected to Shakespeare’s pen. The reply I inevitably get is, “Have you seen The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)?” referring to the winking, satirical spin on the Bard’s works by Adam Long, Daniel Singer, and Jess Winfield of the Reduced Shakespeare Company. Well, I’ve finally seen it, the Again version, at the American Shakespeare Center’s Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton, Virginia, a venue perfect for such a semi-improvisational, audience-participation show. Furthermore, the cast comprised three of my favorite Shakespeareans. To read the full review, click here.

Shakespeare News

Epic Shakespeare's Histories Enterprise
Resurrected as You Tube Audio Production

Brave Spirits Theatre's ambitious staging of Shakespeare's eight-play War of the Roses history cycle—interrupted by Covid and the theater's subsequent closure—has been resurrected as an online audio production. Artistic Director Charlene V. Smith, who put years of creative effort into her Shakespeare's Histories enterprise, never gave up on bringing it to full fruition and created audio performances with much of the original casts. The productions will be streamed in 24 episodes for free on You Tube. For details, click here.

The Comedy of Errors

Pair of Deuces, 3 of Hearts Equals a Winning Hand

Dressed in multi-orange sweatshirts and suspender-upholding cargo pants, one Dromio stands with hand on thrusted hip and the other hand's two fingers to his lips while next to him the other Dromio is turned toward his twin, crouched with splayed legs and presenting him with outstretched hands.Dromio prances onto the stage and launches into a high-kicking, body-twisting, hand-raising, disco-flavored song and dance. They are soon joined by the entire cast for a full-on dance number to conclude the Shakespeare Theatre Company's production of William Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors. Foremost in my mind watching this finale is not the great production values of the show I'd just experienced, or the succinctly subtle acting choices across the talented ensemble, or the out-of-nowhere humor working in tandem with on-target Shakespearean verse readings. What I'm thinking is how the heck are Alex Brightman and David Fynn as, respectively, Dromio of Syracuse and Dromio of Ephesus still standing, let alone singing while dancing, given what they've accomplished physically and endured choreographically over the past 2:10 hour's traffic on the stage with only a 15-minute rest for intermission? To read the full review, click here.

Venus and Adonis

An Elizabethan Peep Show

Lise Bruneau and Tonya Beckmen stand behind their music stands, looking at each other with big smiles and Beckman casually pointing a finger at BruneauTaffety Punk Theatre Company is a small but brightly shining gem in the Washington, D.C., theater scene, a richly talented acting company displaying a brilliantly inventive willingness to explore conceptual stagings of William Shakespeare’s works. This includes those narrative poems at the back of your edition of Shakespeare's Complete Works. Having staged The Rape of Lucrece in 2012, they have now undertaken Venus and Adonis, which could well have been Elizabethan porn. The two narrators, Tonya Beckman and Lise Bruneau, gave Shakespeare's vividly descriptive verses a cheeky resonance. For the review, click here.