SCENE 37 EXT. THE GARDEN - MORNING Will works on his garden. Now digging, cutting turf, gardening is hard. Anne emerges. ANNE: Husband! It’s Sunday. WILL: Sunday? ANNE: This isn’t London. If you miss church here they fine you. Will Shakespeare’s London was run strictly both by the laws of the City (most of which the playhouses evaded by mostly being outside the City limits), the laws of the land and the laws of the church. Put all these together at a time when religious observances, and...

If there were indeed no rehearsal, how might Shakespeare’s first actors have done it? It seems inconceivable in this modern, post-Stanislavski world that actors could have produced coherent, engaging performances with fully realised characters without  the rehearsal process understood and expected today. Yet the modern, radical technique of “Cue Script” acting created by Patrick Tucker in the 1980s, and perpetuated in the UK and USA today, certainly does  work. So how does that happen? For...

When did slickness become the keyword in Shakespeare (and other theatrical) reviews? Much rehearsal-room time and energy are given to...