Shakespeare Just to prove that everything is a matter of taste, a new production receives this staggeringly negative review: "(Director) Kiselov plays fast and loose with Shakespeare's text, to no apparent end. That he edits it isn't the issue-- every director cuts Hamlet , if only to shorten its running time. Here, Kiselov cuts the play's entire first scene, allegedly to hasten the drama's family dynamic. Yet he loses any coherent thematic focus by the end of the first act. He reassigns dialogue from one character to another, and inexplicably alters phrases: Hamlet's famous declaration that "there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy," oddly becomes " our philosophy." ... and also a piece which sees the editing as a positive adjustment ... "This dramatic, albeit abridged, production opens with a black-clad, grieving young Hamlet. We know something is terribly wrong from the get-go - deleting the famous traditional opening scene does not alter the dark mood at all. A solitary Hamlet against a stark background and an open grave create a foreboding strong enough to endure throughout this tragedy. The deletion shaves time and characters from the play and brings the audience into the core of the tragedy quickly and more accessibly."

Shakespeare Barry Stewart Mann plays Will in a one-man-show designed to give children a way into the canon outside the classroom: 'This will be an introduction for elementary and middle school students to the characters, stories, ideas and styles of William Shakespeare,' said the Newton County Library Systems head of children services Carol Durusau. 'The bard himself will welcome the audience aboard an amusement park ride and take them through imaginary chambers of comedy, tragedy, history and fantasy and meeting such wonderful characters as Falstaff, Puck, Richard III, Cleopatra and Romeo.'

Shakespeare Review of the musical Kiss Me Kate at North Shore Music Theatre in Boston: "Rachel deBenedet seems to have been born to play Lilli and Kate. She looks and sounds gorgeous, ends a chorus of "I Hate Men" on a note as long and loud as Ethel Merman ever hit, and manages high notes and coloratura as deftly as she barbs a line and wings it at its target -- usually her nemesis and ex-husband, Fred Graham. She's elegant even in slapstick horseplay, and there's a human side to her, too -- she establishes a neat ambiguity, because it is not clear who is taming whom."

Shakespeare Michael Portillo reviews the Old Vic new Hamlet: "Throughout, Nunn rejuvenates the text by helping his actors find new ways to deliver the most familiar lines. For example, a slight change of emphasis during the later scenes between Claudius and Gertrude suggests that she obeys Hamlet's order to shun her husband as the pressure on their marriage mounts. The queen hits the bottle, which provides a lovely double meaning when, in the duel scene, Claudius orders her not to drink. (The goblet, of course, contains poison.)"

Shakespeare Review of Fletcher's Cardenio from the Southwest Shakespeare Company of Arizona, USA: "But it’s painful to sit through a tragedy only to be overwhelmed by its silliness. Kudos to Southwest Shakespeare for giving the show a go, but let’s shoot this "Cardenio" from the "canon" or leave it buried, where it belongs."

Shakespeare The Independent newspaper reports that the next book from Peter Ackroyd, soon to be seen the BBC's new documentary series London should be a biography of Will.

Life I began the day watching the sci-fi movie Independence Day. I ended it in the back of a taxi listening to Jeff Lynne's War of the Worlds on the driver's crackly cassette radio. Who says that life doesn't have a certain symmetry ...

Shakespeare New review of Kurosawa's adaptation Ran: "'King Lear' is an old man's drama, so it's fitting that Kurosawa should have made it in his own dotage (he was 75 at the time of production). Excising the bard's iambic pentameter and the father-daughter theme, Kurosawa sets the tale in 16th Century Japan. Aging warlord Hidetora (Nakadai) is preparing to divide his land up between his three sons: Taro (Terao), Jiro (Nezu) and the youngest of the three, Saburo (Ryu)."

Shakespeare A key moment in the play is compared to the USA's current attitude towards Iraq: "When Shakespeare's Good King Harry was at war in France, and had an old drinking buddy hanged for robbing a church, he knew how much he would need the support of the populace if he were to hold his claim to rule that land, and how little it would take to lose it. The United States does not seek, we are told, to rule Iraq. But if Iraq is to be ruled by anyone friendly to the West -- or, perhaps, by anyone at all -- the reports of grotesque tortures committed against Iraqi prisoners by American and British forces must be dealt with firmly and openly."

Shakespeare Short discussion about whether Fletcher's Cardenio is in fact one of Will's lost plays: "But what of the play's origins? The handwriting expert compared an original manuscript to Shakespeare's will, one of the few documents known to have been in the Bard's own hand. The verdict was a match. The conclusion suggests Cardenio was either Shakespeare's own creation or he may have edited and critiqued Fletcher's script as a teaching tool. "

Shakespeare The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: "Welcome to the Web's first edition of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare. This site has offered Shakespeare's plays and poetry to the Internet community since 1993."

Shakespeare Miss June, a loose film adaptation with Peter Mullen and Courtney Love. First film for director Vincent Reagan.

Shakespeare New film version with Al Paccino in the title role. Also starring Mackenzie Crook, Joseph Fiennes, Gregor Fisher, Jeremy Irons, Andy Serkis and John Sessions. Directed by Michael (Il Postino) Radford.

Related: Shakespeare's Merchant, with Bruce Cornwell.

Shakespeare Review of the young version of Hamlet at The Old Vic: "But if this messy-haired Hamlet is most convincingly a student - (Ben) Whishaw seems constantly to be pulling up his pants as if it would be uncool to wear a belt - he's in sympathy with a production that will probably resonate most with students. Others may miss the maturity and/or nobility that such older Hamlets as Tony winner Ralph Fiennes have brought to the part."

Shakespeare An exploration of the importance of language within the plays through the work of the voice coach Andrew Wade: "How we find a way for language to go through us is the real challenge," he says. Partners switch places, and later Wade instructs, "Hands on partner's ribs. Count slowly as they exhale . . . Seated people, open your mouth and sigh out. Feel your ribs in your partner's hands like a corset. Stick your tongue out like a gargoyle: Breathe in, out. Are you more conscious?" A few heads nod affirmatively. "Now count to 10 in a whisper." The sound is like wind rustling trees. "Lean back into your partner's hands, they'll support you. Explore your own resonance."

Shakespeare Eyewitness acciount of veteran actor Jonathan McMurtry's 'Speaking Shakespeare' class at the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Point Loma, San Diego: "What defines poetry anyway?" he asks to open his class. The Shakespeare text has landed in a new resting place atop an old piano in the corner of the theater ... "You have to love the words," he tells the class. "In Shakespeare, especially, what you speak is what you say. ... You say the words and you ... your character ... has to make me want to hear them. The imagery seduces the audience into listening."

Shakespeare An American travel review of Will's birthplace: "A visit to Stratford-upon-Avon is worthwhile, but keep in mind that this town knows which side its scones are buttered on. Shakespeare is the cottage industry here, and amusements range from boat rides along the river Avon to Falstaff's Experience, a bizarre tour of history hardly related to the favorite Shakespearean character. Even so, the town is a pleasant visit, with scores of Tudor half-timber buildings and Elizabethan decor in shops and restaurants. There is no Starbucks-upon-Avon."

Related: From Shakespeare with love

Shakespeare That quote rewritten for the property market: "All the world's a stage, / And all the properties merely players; / They have their exits and their entrances; / And one property in its time plays many parts."

Shakespeare  Appreciation of Jonathan Miller who amongst other things oversaw the televising of the canon on the BBC is the Eighties. In reference to a recent production of King Lear: "I'm very strongly influenced [in interpreting the play] by what [the political theorist Thomas] Hobbes said about the necessity of sovereign power. But I'm also interested in the concrete, grungy details of overdemanding fathers who want to hear their daughters say how much they love them. There's a wonderful moment, just after the king has gone raging out into the storm, and one of the daughters turns to the others and says, rather guiltily, `This house is little.' It's the most wonderful piece of suburban triviality."

Shakespeare Desperate Measures is a loose rock musical retellng: "David Friedman's musical score, an agreeable blend of soft rock and faux country, is happily wed to Peter Kellogg's lyrics. Kellogg's book moves the action from 17th-century Vienna to the 19th-century American West, where cowhand Johnny Blood is sentenced to hang for killing a man in a saloon fight. The condemned man's sister, Susanna, who is about to become a nun, urges the governor to Look in Your Heart. He responds with a mocking reprise and a wicked offer: He'll grant Johnny a pardon if Susanna will sleep with him. Not a problem. Arrange the assignation, dim the lights, substitute Bella, the local floozy, for Susanna and you have the device Shakespeare scholars refer to as the "bed trick."