Classic Plays

Les sonnets parus en 1609 mais rédigés au fil des décennies précédentes résonnent encore aujourd'hui de part les thèmes intemporels qu'ils abordent, le désir, l'amour, la jalousie, le doute, la vieillesse, la mort. Ces 154 poèmes nous offrent à voir un concentré de l'univers shakespearien passionné, touchant, universel.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of William Shakespeare’s most well-known comedies and is arguably one of his most beloved plays. The play tells the tale of the misadventures of the people gathering to participate in their marriage of the duke of Athens and Hippolyta, former queen of the Amazons.

Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight! When young Jim Hawkins unexpectedly inherits a treasure map, he little knows what adventures await him. Pursued by pirates, betrayed by friends and beset by skulduggery, Jim must brave high seas and low cunning before he reaches the shores of Treasure Island. His fellow treasure hunters include the inflexible Captain Smollett, the indefatigable Doctor Livesey and the irrepressible Squire Trelawney.

Written as the letters of the five members of Squire Bramble's household sent as they journey around Britain, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker is a grouchy, very funny examination of how one story varies depending on who's doing the telling. The tale is centered around the arrival of Mr. Clinker into the otherwise uneventful household, who never speaks and does not even enter the novel until a third of the way through.

Created by star pairing Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, the Gruffalo is a familiar and much-loved figure in nurseries, schools and homes everywhere. Now he returns in his very own song to offer truly monster music sessions! As well as being the UK's most successful picture book author, Julia...

Mystery, power and malevolence are present in these plays, all of which subvert the happy endings that one would expect in a comedy and the tragic effect one would expect in a tragedy, to pose deeper moral questions that echo modern society. Performed by an incredible array of the 20th century’s greatest actors, Marlowe alumni including Roy Dotrice, Prunella Scales, Ian McKellen, Michael Hordern and Derek Jacobi can be heard in these recordings.

From Instagram phenomenon Whitney Hanson, a brand-new collection of poems exploring themes of identity, loss, and what it means to rediscover yourself the love of my life is a poetry collection that traces the process of rediscovering a love of life after change, disconnection, and personal...

Macbeth and his wife show how bad the evil that can possess human souls is. But evil is not all powerful. On the one hand, Macbeth is the gloomiest of the great Shakespeare's tragedies; on the other hand, it's more encouraging than Hamlet, Othello or King Lear. In no other tragedy as in Macbeth the evil is confronted by so many people, and nowhere else they are so active. Shakespeare is the author of the world famous sonnets and plays: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth and Othello, as well as comedies Twelfth Night, A Midsummer's Night Dream, Love's Labour's Lost, etc.

King Lear is ready to turn his realm over to his three daughters. His plan is simple: Give the biggest piece to the daughter who loves him most. But honeyed words and hubris blind Lear to the true motives of those around him, plunging king and kingdom into a hell of treachery, madness, and unspeakable acts - with consequences that reveal the worst and best in human nature.

By the time Shakespeare came to write Macbeth - almost certainly in 1605/1606 - he had already completed three of the great tragedies with which modern audiences are so familiar: Hamlet (1601), Othello (1603), and King Lear (1605). Each of those plays gives us an eponymous hero who is in some significant way flawed, but for whom we also inevitably feel deep sympathy, whatever his errors or crimes. But in MacBeth, Shakespeare has chosen for his tragic hero a man guilty of the most terrible crime imaginable to a Jacobean audience, that of regicide - the murder of a king.

The Taming of the Shrew is a classic comedy by William Shakespeare featuring characters Petruchio and Katherina. The work is deeply laden with sexism and gender issues as Petruchio "tames" Katherina in an increasingly abusive relationship. A classic throughout the ages, you simply must hear this story.

Othello follows the story of the Moor through love, jealousy and deceit. Iago is furious about being overlooked for promotion and plots to take revenge against his general; Othello, the Moor of Venice. Iago manipulates Othello into believing his wife, Desdemona, is unfaithful, stirring Othello's jealousy. Othello allows jealousy to consume him, murders Desdemona and then kills himself.

The predominant theme in this Shakespearean tragedy, believed to have been written in about 1603, is jealousy and the destruction it causes when allowed to run rampant. It features one of Shakespeare's most compelling villains, Iago, who skillfully manipulates his commander, Othello, into believing that he has been betrayed by his wife, Desdemona, and his closest friend, Cassio.

Here is the multi award-winning SmartPass study guide, with and without commentary options. This is a full-cast, unabridged performance with comprehensive commentary and analysis to allow any student to fully understand and appreciate the play. Meet literature's greatest villain in this tragedy, fuelled by jealous rage. Journey into the twisted mind of Iago, who freely admits, "I am not what I am", and truly get under the skin of this wondrous play.

The Marlowe Society perform Shakespeare's tragedy based on the life of the Roman Leader Gaius Martius Coriolanus.

Rudyard Kipling's famous tale tells the story of Mowgli, the "man-cub" rescued from the tiger Shere Khan and adopted by a wolf pack. As he grows up, Mowgli learns the ways of the jungle from Baloo the bear, Bagheera the black panther, and Kaa the rock python. His life is full of adventure with the jungle creatures, but soon the time comes when he is forced to leave and take his place among his own people.

The Pulitzer Prize winning modern classic of two Cuban musician brothers during the mambo-filled nights of 50's New York from literary trailblazer, Oscar Hijuelos. It's 1949 and two young Cuban musicians make their way from Havana to the grand stage of New York City. It is the era of mambo...

Everyone's getting the bus but where are they going?

Complete and unabridged version of Shakespeare's comedy performed by a full cast including Derek Godfrey, Prunella Scales, and Diana Rigg.

Shakespeare's King Lear ranks with Sophocles' Oedipus as a tragic hero destroyed by his own good intentions. From the moment when Lear unfolds his darker purpose, we are drawn into an ineluctable chain of events that leads through betrayal, deceit, destructive family conflict, reconciliation, despair, and death. Considered by many to be the most grueling of Shakespeare's tragedies.