Irony and ambiguity
Presenter/director John Barton guides members of the Royal Shakespeare Company in a discussion and dramatization of Shakespeare's use of irony and ambiguity. Barton analyzes some of Shakespeare's texts with the actors, and demonstrates how understan...
Poetry and hidden poetry
Presenter/director John Barton leads members of the Royal Shakespeare Company in a discussion of Shakespeare's use of poetry and hidden poetry in seemingly unpoetic lines. Barton and the actors demonstrate how polysyllables trip easily off the tongu...
Rehearsing the text
Using a scene from Twelfth Night, this program helps us search through the text for Shakespeare's clues to character, language, and staging; we see how richly a careful reading of Shakespeare is repaid. The program analyzes text and subtext, how the...
Language and character
Presenter/director John Barton guides members of the Royal Shakespeare Company in a discussion and dramatization of Shakespeare's use of language to define character, and his characters' use of heightened language to achieve their intentions. Explor...
The two traditions
Presenter/director John Barton guides members of the Royal Shakespeare Company in a discussion and dramatization of Shakespeare's use of language, meter, and verse. Barton and the actors address and analyze the question of how to understand Shakespe...
Using the verse
Presenter/director John Barton guides members of the Royal Shakespeare Company in a discussion and dramatization of Shakespeare's use of blank verse. In the course of trying out different stresses, the actors discover how Shakespeare uses antithesis...