Shakespeare’s influence is so vast that it’s hard to choose a selection of New Yorker pieces about him—he comes up everywhere! Still, in honor of the four-hundredth anniversary of his death, this Saturday, we’ve assembled the reading list below. You’ll find pieces about actors, scholars, filmmakers, set designers, and, of course, about the plays themselves—the Shakespearean kaleidoscope seen through a New Yorker lens.
“Imaginary Spaces” (March 28, 2016)
Andrew O’Hagan on Es Devlin, the set designer revolutionizing how Shakespeare is staged.
“The Poet’s Hand” (April 28, 2014)
Adam Gopnik on our fascination with Shakespearean relics.
“Othello’s Daughter” (July 29, 2013)
Alex Ross on Ira Aldridge, a pioneering African-American Shakespearean of the nineteenth century.
“Stage Mothers” (December 24, 2012)
Elif Batuman on staging Shakespeare at a women’s theatre in rural Turkey.
“Stage Secret” (May 21, 2012)
Alec Wilkinson on the actor John Douglas Thompson and Shakespeare’s comedies.
“Curtain-Raiser” (April 23, 2012)
John Lahr on Nicholas Hytner’s stewardship of London’s National Theatre.
“The Answer Man” (August 8, 2011)
Stephen Greenblatt on Lucretius’s poem “De Rerum Natura” and the origins of the Renaissance.
“Stage Left” (March 22, 2010)
Rebecca Mead on Oskar Eustis, the director of the Public Theatre.
“Romeo, Romeo” (July 7, 2008)
Joan Acocella on Mark Morris’s “Romeo and Juliet” ballet.
“After Hamlet” (May 5, 2008)
Cynthia Zarin on the Shakespearean actor Mark Rylance.
“The Player Kings” (November 19, 2007)
Claudia Roth Pierpont on how the rivalry of Orson Welles and Laurence Olivier made Shakespeare modern.
“He That Plays the King” (August 27, 2007)
John Lahr on Sir Ian McKellen.
“Late Works” (August 7, 2006)
John Updike on how writers and artists—including Shakespeare—confront life’s end.
“Shakespeare in Rewrite” (May 13, 2002; subscribers only)
Ron Rosenbaum on the making of the Arden “Hamlet.”
“Hamlet Meets Mao” (November 13, 2000; subscribers only)
Peter Hessler on teaching Shakespeare in China.
“Tights! Camera! Action!” (November 25, 1996)
Anthony Lane on the history of Shakespeare on film.
“Hamlet in Hollywood” (November 20, 1995)
David Remnick on a legal battle over Shakespeare’s intellectual property.
“Queen Lear” (October 3, 1994)
David Denby on studying Shakespeare in the midst of grief.
_Read a collection of New Yorker writers’ recollections about influential encounters they’ve had with Shakespeare’s work. _
