ABSTRACT

In Shakespeare in Three Dimensions, Robert Blacker asks us to set aside what we think we know about Shakespeare and rediscover his plays on the page, and as Shakespeare intended, in the rehearsal room and in performance. That process includes stripping away false traditions that have obscured his observations about people and social institutions that are still vital to our lives today. This book explores the verities of power and love in Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth, as an example of how to mine the extraordinary detail in all of Shakespeare’s plays, using the knowledge of both theatre practitioners and scholars to excavate and restore them.

chapter |3 pages

Introduction

part I|60 pages

Romeo and Juliet

chapter 1|10 pages

The boys

chapter 2|9 pages

Folios and quartos

chapter 3|11 pages

Juliet and Romeo

chapter 4|8 pages

The aural word

Verse and prose

chapter 5|10 pages

Mercutio’s use of rhetoric

chapter 6|10 pages

Three households

part II|60 pages

Macbeth

chapter 7|9 pages

Dramatic structure

chapter 8|10 pages

English history in the Scottish Play

chapter 9|10 pages

Mr. and Mrs. Macbeth

chapter 10|5 pages

Remember the Porter

chapter 11|10 pages

The public story

chapter 12|3 pages

The Shakespeare industry

chapter 13|8 pages

Crime and punishment

chapter |5 pages

Coda

Does Shakespeare need a facelift?