The full title of this play is Elizabeth: Almost by Chance a Woman and in a lot of ways is similar to the recent film, The Favourite. One of my favorite lacuna in the theories about Shakespeare not actually being Shakespeare (he is) involves how many of Shakespeare’s roles were clearly shaped by the makeup of the company at a given time. Certainly a lot of different actors could play lots of different Shakespeare roles, but Richard Burbage, a good boy, or William Kemp were […]

“Blimey, home at last. My feet are killing me.” Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay! Like a lot of good satire, not only is the target of the satire savaged in this play, so too, are the ones whose opinions most closely align. When I think about say Nineteen Eighty Four, in the way that all dystopia is a kind of parody, I think about while there is a direct critique going on in the novel, what is most effective about it is that it’s also a […]