Shakespeare Uncovered is a unique series of six films
combining history, biography, outstanding performances, new analyses,
and the personal passion of celebrated hosts –
Ethan Hawke,
Jeremy Irons, Derek Jacobi, Trevor Nunn, Joely Richardson, and
David Tennant – to tell the story behind the stories of
Shakespeare’s greatest plays.
Each
episode explores and reveals the extraordinary world and works of
William Shakespeare and their still potent impact today. The films
combine interviews with actors, directors, and scholars, along with
visits to key locations, clips from some of the most celebrated film
and television adaptations, and illustrative excerpts from the plays
especially staged for the series at Shakespeare’s Globe in London.
Behind every Shakespeare play there is a story: for instance, how
he and his company dismantled their theatre and rowed it across the
river Thames when the landlord cancelled their lease – and then
staged
Henry V for the first time. Shakespeare was in show
business – drawing on historical sources, stealing ideas, bringing
back popular characters, and picking up dramatic ideas from the news
of the day.
Each program’s host has had deep personal experience of
Shakespeare’s work; each relates not only the story of the plays
themselves, but also the story of how they came to be written, how
they have been performed, and how they have survived over 400 years.
Synopses of the six episodes:
Macbeth (premieres Friday, Jan. 25, 9 p.m.
(CT) on NET1/HD)
Ethan Hawke invites viewers to
join him in his quest to play Shakespeare’s murderous Thane of
Cawdor by uncovering the true story that served as inspiration,
immersing himself in some of the most memorable and innovative
productions and discovering Shakespeare’s extraordinary insights
into the criminal mind.
Twelfth Night & As
You Like It (premieres Friday, Jan. 25, 10 p.m. (CT) on
NET1/HD)
Joely Richardson investigates (with her
mother
Vanessa Redgrave) the legacy of these two
brilliant cross-dressing comedies and the great comic and romantic
heroines created by Shakespeare in two perennially popular plays.
Richard II (premieres Friday, Feb. 1,
9.p.m. (CT) on NET1/HD
Derek Jacobi returns to a
role he played 30 years ago, coaches actors at the Globe in aspects
of the play, reveals why it could have cost Shakespeare his life –
and shares some of the extraordinary modern political parallels
within the play that still resonate as dictators are deposed. Also
featured are notable excerpts from the upcoming
Great
Performances film adaptation starring
Ben Whishaw
and
Patrick Stewart.
Henry IV and Henry V
(premieres Friday, Feb. 1, 10 p.m. (CT) on NET1/HD)
Jeremy
Irons (who stars as Henry IV in the upcoming new
Great
Prformances film adaptation) uncovers the enduring appeal of
Shakespeare’s “History Plays,” from the facts of English
history to the father-son drama that Shakespeare created. He
discloses what Shakespeare’s sources were – and how he distorted
them. And he invites the viewer behind the scenes at the
filming of some of the most important sequences in the new
Great
Performances adaptations of both plays, starring Irons and
Tom
Hiddleston as Prince Hal.
Hamlet (premieres Friday, Feb. 8, 9 p.m.
(CT) on NET1/HD)
An acclaimed Hamlet himself in the Royal
Shakespeare Company’s recent hit production (and another recent
Great Performances production),
David Tennant
meets with fellow Hamlets, including superstar
Jude Law,
comparing notes on the titanic challenge of playing the most
iconic of all roles. He also tries, alongside
Simon Russell
Beale and
Ben Whishaw, to master the
meaning of the play and the reason why it is considered the greatest
of all Shakespeare’s works.
The Tempest (premieres
Friday, Feb. 8, 10 p.m. (CT) on NET1/HD)
Trevor Nunn
has directed 30 of Shakespeare’s 37 plays and is determined to
complete them all before he retires. Nunn takes us through the
magical and mysterious world created in Shakespeare’s last complete
play. He considers
The Tempest Shakespeare’s farewell from
the stage and relates the play to the playwright’s family life.
Among the enthusiastic students of the play who contribute ideas
about the role of Prospero is the Archbishop of Canterbury, as well
as
Helen Mirren and director
Julie Taymor,
who collaborated on the most recent film adaptation – with Mirren
playing a female
Prospera.
Shakespeare Uncovered was produced by Richard Denton for
Blakeway Productions & THIRTEEN for WNET in association with the
BBC and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, each episode explores and
reveals the extraordinary world and works of William Shakespeare and
their still potent impact today.
