Shakespeare: The Animated Tales - Hamlet
All animation techniques are painstaking, but that of painting on glass is especially so. This unusual medium succeeds impressively in capturing the ghostly presence of Hamlet's father and the agonized indecision of Hamlet himself, in this classic d...
Timon of Athens
Choice calls this "a recommended version of a difficult yet interesting play." In his most cynical work, Shakespeare explores money - its virtues and its vices. Timon, a noble Athenian, is wildly extravagant with his inheritance. But as his money ru...
The day we learned to think: the evolution of language and cognition
Was there a "big bang" in human language and cognitive development, or did speech and abstract thought evolve slowly - perhaps across 200,000 years or so? Surveying prehistoric burial sites and other archaeological finds, including what might be the...
King Lear
Intending to divide his realm among his three daughters, the dictatorial Lear commands each give a testimony of her love. But after the gushing of malevolent Goneril and Regan, loyal Cordelia states: "I love your majesty according to my bond; nor mo...
Oedipus the King
Sophocles often won the leading prize at the Dionysia, the principal dramatic festival of Athens; but Oedipus the King was a runner-up, winner of the second prize. Posterity, however, considers the play second to none. The play tells the beginning o...
Antigone
Antigone is perhaps the most easily accessible of all the great classical tragedies, its theme clear and up-to-date: the conflict between moral and political law. Now the tale of Oedipus and his family comes to its end-he, his wife Jocasta, his sons...