Shakespeare Uncovered

Culture Series

Shakespeare Uncovered combines history, biography, iconic performances, new analysis, and the personal passions of its celebrated hosts Helen Hunt, F. Murray Abraham, Romola Garai, Brian Cox, Simon Russell Beale and Sir Antony Sher host the third season to tell the stories behind the stories of Shakespeare’s greatest plays.

54m 41s / TV-PG

Joseph Fiennes Visits a Class on Iambic Pentameter

3m 20s

Joseph Fiennes listens in on a Shakespeare session at a South London evening class. Bruce Wall has taught Shakespeare across the world. His students include city bankers, Broadway actors and several thousand prisoners. In this class, he's teaching the group how to think in Iambic Pentameter, the classic five stress rhythm of Shakespearian text.

Anthony & Cleopatra with Kim Cattrall | Preview

34s

Kim Cattrall has played Cleopatra twice. Now she explores the real character of the great Queen of Egypt, and travels to Rome, Marc Antony’s city, in her quest to find out more about the historical Cleopatra. She also meets with her director, Dame Janet Suzman, who herself made an iconic Cleopatra at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1973, and with Harriet Walter and Vanessa Redgrave.

The Lovers Untangled

2m 14s

The mixed-up story of the young lovers Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius, and Helena in Shakespeares’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream can be quite confusing. This two-minute animation sums up what you need to know.

Romeo and Juliet with Joseph Fiennes | Preview

34s

Joseph Fiennes has a unique perspective on Romeo and Juliet. He played Shakespeare – both writing and performing as Romeo – in the film Shakespeare in Love. Now he wants to examine why it remains the most-performed of all Shakespeare plays. Adaptations by London's Royal Ballet and Stephen Sondheim (West Side Story) are examined as are films by Franco Zeffirelli and Baz Luhrman.

Morgan Freeman reunites with Co-Star Tracey Ullman

4m 34s

Morgan Freeman reunites with his own Kate, Tracey Ullman to talk about their performance in The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park production in New York, set in the Wild West.

Kim Cattrall on Shakespeare's Performance Space

2m 46s

Kim Cattrall visits a recently completed copy of the Blackfriars, a space where was thought that Shakespeare and his company performed. Cattrall meets with the Globe's artistic director, Dominic Dromgoole for a tour.

Kim Cattrall Discusses Playing Cleopatra's Character

3m 22s

Kim Cattrall joins The Globe actors while they are rehearsing a scene from Antony & Cleopatra. Cattrall and the actors discuss Celopatra's wildly fluctuating mood swings and her variety of moods.

Othello with David Harewood | Preview

34s

David Harewood was the first black actor to play Othello at London’s National Theatre, triumphantly taking on the role in 1997. Now he returns to the play to discover how the centuries have changed our views of it. A forensic psychiatrist helps to analyze Iago ( an extraordinary psychopath) and how he manipulates Othello by persuading him that his wife is having an affair.

Morgan Freeman Discusses Shakespeares take on the Shrew

2m 43s

The shrew is the oldest comic role for women. It goes back to medieval plays and persists into the late 20th century. The traditional shrew tales make a mockery of the woman, but the one in Shakespeare's play is different.

The Taming of the Shrew with Morgan Freeman | Preview

35s

For many, the play The Taming of the Shrew is uncomfortable to watch. It was one of Shakespeare’s very first plays and may seem too brutal for modern audiences. It ends with a speech about how women should obey their men. But is this the sexist propaganda that it first appears – or is there something more complicated going on? Morgan Freeman hosts.

Julie Taymor on her Production of A Midsummer Night's Dream

2m 48s

Director Julie Taymor, who recently staged a vivid production at the Theater for a New Audience in Brooklyn (starring David Harewood). In the deserted Globe Theatre, Bonneville muses on the play’s enduring appeal.

Shakespeare Uncovered Series II | Preview

32s

Series II of Shakespeare Uncovered continues on PBS, beginning Friday, January 30 at 9 p.m. and continuing the following two successive Fridays. The series investigates A Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, and The Taming of the Shrew and combines history, biography, iconic performances, new analysis, and the personal passions of its celebrated host

King Lear with Christopher Plummer | Preview

37s

King Lear is universally acknowledged as one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragic roles. Christopher Plummer has played the role under the direction of Sir Jonathan Miller. Ian McKellen and Simon Russell Beale share their insights into this often-difficult character. And Plummer examines what inspired Shakespeare to write a play about a kingdom divided at a delicate moment.

Christopher Plummer on the Different Versions of King Lear

2m 12s

For nearly 150 years, Shakespeare’s Lear vanished from the stage and in its place audiences saw a version with a happy ending. Christopher Plummer speaks with theatre historian Tanya Pollard on a different ending of King Lear. In a script by Nahum Tate, Cordelia and Lear are rescued by Edgar and they all live happily ever after.

A Midsummer Night's Dream with Hugh Bonneville | Preview

37s

Bonneville started his career at the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park, understudying Ralph Fiennes as Lysander, one of the four lovers in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He and Fiennes meet up to try to untangle the extraordinary plot of one of Shakespeare’s most enduringly popular plays. Bonneville also sees the play at the Globe Theatre and talks to the Globe’s Artistic Director Dominic Dromgoole.

Hugh Bonneville and Ralph Fiennes on Performing Shakespeare

2m 26s

Bonneville started his career at the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park, understudying Ralph Fiennes as Lysander, one of the four lovers in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He and Fiennes meet up again to try to untangle the extraordinary plot of one of Shakespeare’s most enduringly popular plays, a great comedy of love and enchantment.

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