Inspired by Shakespeare
 The Tamer Tamed
John Fletcher
In John Fletcher's "sequel" to Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio finds out how it feels to be on the receiving end of a taming campaign by a spurrious lover. The Tamer Tamed is a welcome edition to the New Mermaids Editions, which offers fully annotated texts, a full, exhaustive introduction, and a beautiful edition for any library. Softcover,
187 pp. $18.00.
 The Boy Who Would Be Shakespeare: A Tale of Forgery and Folly
Doug Stewart
In the winter of 1795, a struggling teenage writer -- in an attempt to impress his Shakespeare-worshipping father -- caused a public sensation when he passed off one of his own plays as a long lost Shakespeare manuscript. This dramatic and improbable story of the Bard's teenage double takes us to eighteenth-century London and brings us face-to-face with history's most audacious forger. Hardcover, 229 pp. $31.95.
 The Tragedy of Macbeth Part II: The Seed of Banquo
Noah Lukeman
Ten years king, Malcolm sits on an uneasy throne. If Malcolm's mind is haunted by the ghosts of his royal father as well as the thane and lady who so bloodily betrayed him, Malcolm's soul is sickened, as was Macbeth's by the witches prophecy that remained unfulfilled at the end of Shakespeare's play. True to the Shakespearean model which it is following, this sequel draws bold the tragedy of a powerful man undone by the terrors he imagines and the truths he fails to see. Softcover, 135 pp. $16.00.
 Philaster
Francis Beaumont & John Fletcher
Even though this tragicomic rewrite of Hamlet is notorious for its hero's emotional excesses, one should not ignore the play's potent political content. In addition to a clear and authoritative version of the play, this edition offers detailed scholarship, including a fresh assessment of the play's changing political valences across time and its presentation of deviant sexuality. Softcover, 340 pp. $25.00.
 All the World's A Grave
John Reed
An epic tragedy of love, war, murder and madness plucked from the pages of Shakespeare. Imagine that Hamlet had a reason; Macbeth a spine; Juliet an affair...with Romeo. In this new play by John Reed the ingredients are Shakespeare's own-people, places, words- but the brew is all new, and bubbling with terrible trouble. Softcover, 197 pp. $13.00.
 Days of Significance
Roy Williams
Written in response to Much Ado About Nothing, Days of Significance is set in market-town England and the deserts of Iraq. On the eve of their departure for active service, two young soldiers join their friends to binge drink the night away. Their complex love lives and mortal fears directly impact on their tour of duty and reveal how the naive and malformed moral codes of these young men have catastrophic reverberations for the West's moral authority. Softcover, 98 pp. $18.00.
 The Al-Hamlet Summit
Sulayman Al-Bassam
Original playscript in English and Arabic. Softcover, 174 pp. $24.95.
 Shakespeare's
Rugby Wars
Chris Coculuzzi & Matt Toner
Upstart Crow Sports Network proudly brings you Shakespeare's Rugby Wars,
a clever hybrid of improvised sporting play and spectacle theatre transforming
Shakespeare's Wars of the Roses tetralogy (Henry VI, Parts 1,
2, and 3, and Richard III) into a live rugby match. Chris Marlowe
and Jack Falstaff provide all the play-by-play colour commentary with interviews
and updates from that on-the-pitch historian reporter Raphael Holinshed, as Team
Lancaster and Team York scrum it out for the British Crown and Rugby Supremacy.
Softcover, 52 pp. $12.95.
Shakespeare in Art
Jane Martineau
Shakespeare is one of the most influencial writers of all time, but it was the
rediscovery of his work in the eighteenth century that was a key factor in launching
the Romantic movement. Shakespeare in Art looks especially at
the huge variety of painters who made Shakespeare's extremes of passion, his
evocations of nature, his spirit world and his eternally familiar characters
the subjects of their own work. Beautifully illustrated throughout, this book
will engage anyone interested in the cross-pollenation between literature and
art. Hardcover, 256 pp. $79.95.
Chasing Shakespeares
Sarah Smith
Joe Roper, an academic with working-class roots has just landed
the job of a lifetime. Working in the famed Kellog Collection of
Elizabethan texts and curiosities, Joe is able to indulge in his
love of all things
Shakespearian. Suddenly, things take an unexpected turn when Posy
Gould, a glamourous Harvard girl, insists that a letter Joe has
found, signed
by a "W. Shakespeare of Stratford", is a career-making
discovery for them both. What follows is a literary adventure full
of mystery
and intrigue that spans five centuries and two continents. A witty
thriller, Chasing Shakespeares is an enduring tale of love,
art, and poetic justice.
Softcover, 337 pp. $18.50.
After Shakespeare: Writing Inspired by the World's Greatest Author
This unique anthology draws on vast literature which shows, with
immediacy and passion, the enormous impact Shakespeare has had on
our cultural life. Works by Fydor Dostoevsky, Aldous Huxley, Emily
Dickinson, Duke Ellington, James Joyce, Jean-Paul Sartre, John Osbourne
and several other are collected herein. Softcover, 360 pp.
$28.50.
Love's Fire
Eric Bogosian, William Finn, John Guare, Tony Kushner, Marsha Norman, Ntozake
Shange and Wendy Wasserstein
A dazzling collection of short plays inspired by Shakespeare's sonnets, written by
7 of the best contemporary American playwrights. Highlights include Bitter Sauce by
Bogosian, inspired by Sonnet 118, about a man who discovers, on the eve of
his wedding, that his fiancée has been sleeping with a member of the
Hell's Angels. and that the biker is on his way over to see her in the next
five minutes. Softcover,
$25.00
The Shakespeare Revue
Compiled by Christopher Luscombe & Malcolm McKee
A sparkling anthology of songs, sketches and cartoons inspired by Shakespeare. Based
on the hilarious Royal Shakespeare Company West End show. Softcover, $15.99.
The Compleat Works of Wllm Shkspr (abridged)
The Reduced Shakespeare Co.
A mad romp through all 37 of Shakespeare's plays, as performed in 90 minutes by three
actors. My favourite scene is the five-minute Hamlet, played backwards. Devious
fun for the whole family. Softcover, $11.95.
Me And Shakespeare: A Memoir
by Herman Gollob
This is the fascinating and delightful story of a successful, aging book editor,
who attended a superb Broadway production of Hamlet, starring Ralph Fiennes.
He was so moved and galvanized by the experience that he immediately began to pursue
all things Shakespearean -- diving headlong into a vast array of books, videotapes
and finally teaching a popular Shakespeare course for seniors at a small local college
in New Jersey. A divine plunge into one man's total love for the Bard. Hardcover,
$40.00.
Shakespeare Cats
Susan Herbert
Painting in her familiar and highly popular style, Susan Herbert presents an
irresistible array of well-known characters in the great Shakespearean plays,
from the tragic Romeo and Juliet to the mischevious Titania, from the beautiful
Cleopatra to the roguish Falstaff. Shakespeare Cats is a great gift idea
for cat lovers of all ages. Softcover, 64 pp. $23.00.
After Shakespeare
by John Gross
Writing inspired by the world's greatest authors. Includes work by Asimov, Huxley,
Stoppard, Kipling and Murdoch. Hardcover, $47.95 .
Elizabeth Rex
A play by Timothy Findley
On July 20, 2000, TheatreBooks was proud to present a playscript launch with Timothy
Findley of his long-awaited, much-anticipated play, Elizabeth Rex. Timothy
was joined by leading Toronto actress Allegra Fulton.
In this daring and original play, Timothy Findley brings together none
other than William Shakespeare and the formidable Virgin Queen Elizabeth
I. What makes a man
a man and a woman a woman? Late at night on the eve of her former
lover's execution, this is the very question Queen Elizabeth wrestles with
as she descends to the stable
lodgings of Shakespeare's players. Softcover $14.95.
Pictures from the playscript
launch.
Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)
Ann-Marie MacDonald
"Clever, pointed and entertaining...
this play is one of the wildest and woolliest feminist reappraisals that the theater
has seen, and one of the most intellectually ambitious." The Globe and Mail.
$13.95.
Harlem Duet
Djanet Sears
Winner of the prestigious Governor General
Award for Drama. Harlem Duet is a prequel/reimagining of Othello set
in modern-day Harlem. The play tells the story of Othello and his first black wife,
Billie. "An ambitiously complex and satisfying work about interracial marriage,
ghettos and the whitening of Black history and culture..." Variety. $12.95.
Shakespeare's
R & J
Joe Calarco
Four actors with no set, no costume changes,
and no props bring the essence of this classic play vividly alive with the sheer
theatricality of the timeless story. $9.99.
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