Overview

From the Royal Shakespeare Company -- a fresh new edition of Shakespeare's epic retelling of the Wars of the Roses THIS EDITION INCLUDES: * An illuminating introduction to Henry VI by award-winning scholar Jonathan Bate * The play - with clear and authoritative explanatory notes on each page * A helpful scene-by-scene analysis and key facts about the play * An introduction to Shakespeare's career and the Elizabethan theatre * A rich exploration of approaches to staging the play featuring photographs of key productions The most enjoyable way to understand a Shakespeare play is to see it or participate in it. This unique edition presents a historical overview of Henry VI in performance, recommends film versions, takes a detailed look at specific productions and includes interviews with two leading directors and a designer - Edward Hal and Michael Boyd, and Tom Piper -- so that we may get a sense of the extraordinary variety of interpretations that are possible, a variety that gives Shakespeare his unique capacity to be reinvented and made 'our contemporary' four centuries after his death. Ideal for students, theatre-goers, actors and general readers, the RSC Shakespeare plays offer an accessible and contemporary approach to reading and rediscovering Shakespeare's works for the twenty-first century.