Books in Arkangel Complete Shakespeare series

[Full-Cast Audio Theater Dramatization. Prospero is played by Bob Peck, Ariel by Adrian Lester, Jennifer Ehle is Miranda, Simon Russell Beale is Antonio, Jamie Glover is Ferdinand, and Richard McCabe plays Caliban.] This haunting drama of vengeance and forgiveness crowns the group of tragicomic romances that Shakespeare composed at the end of his career. Sometimes read as his farewell to the stage, the play contains some of Shakespeare's most lyrical verse. Prospero, wise Duke of Milan, has been deposed by Antonio, his wicked brother, and exiled with his daughter Miranda to a mysterious island. But Prospero possesses supernatural powers. Aided by the spirit Ariel, Prospero uses his magical art to bring his enemies under his control.

Shakespeare's most famous play is one of the greatest stories in the literature of the world.Distressed by his father's death and his mother's over-hasty remarriage, Hamlet, prince of Denmark is faced by a specter from beyond the grave bearing a grim message of murder and revenge. The young prince is driven to the edge of madness by his struggle to understand the situation he finds himself in and to do his duty. Many others, including Hamlet's beloved, the innocent Ophelia, are swept up in his tragedy.Hamlet is played by Simon Russell Beale. Imogen Stubbs plays Ophelia, Jane Lapotaire is Gertrude, and Bob Peck is Claudius. Polonius is played by Norman Rodway.

[Full-Cast Audio Theater Dramatization. Troilus is played by Ian Pepperell and Cressida by Julia Ford. Norman Rodway is Pandarus and David Troughton plays Thersites.] Troy is beseiged by the invading Greeks, but the young Trojan prince Troilus can think only of his love for Cressida. Her uncle Pandarus brings the two together, but after only one night news comes that Cressida must be sent to the enemy camp. There, as Troilus looks on, she yields to the wooing of the Greek Diomedes. The heroic action of the Trojan War story is undercut by the commentary of Thersites, who provides a cynical chorus to this dark and brilliant play.

Sinister supernatural forces are at work in this fast-paced tragedy of guilt and retribution, in which the power of human beings to control their own destiny is called into question. The brave warrior Macbeth allows himself to be persuaded by Lady Macbeth, his wife, to slay good King Duncan and seize the throne of Scotland for himself. Macbeth achieves his ambition, but one murder proves not to be enough as he desperately attempts to eliminate all who might threaten his ill-gotten power. Descending into paranoia, Macbeth achieves his ambition but ravages his soul. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are played by Hugh Ross and Harriet Walter.

[Full-Cast Audio Theater Dramatization. Emily Woof plays Helena and Sam West plays Bertram. Edward De Souza is Parolles and Clive Swift is the King of France.] The young and virtuous physicians daughter Helena desperately loves Count Bertram, but he regards her as beneath his notice. When Helena cures the King of France of a mortal illness, he rewards her with Bertram's hand, but before their marriage can be consummated the Count flees. To win her husband back again, Helena forms a daring and resourceful plan. A plot to unmask the strutting soldier Parolles makes up another strand in this sometimes disturbing comedy of deception and disguise.

[Full-Cast Audio Theater Dramatization. Dinsdale Landen is Falstaff. Sylvestra Le Touzel plays Mistress Ford and Penny Downie is Mistress Page. Nicholas Woodeson is Ford, Phillip Jackson is Page, and Clive Swift plays Justice Shallow.] It is said that Queen Elizabeth gave Shakespeare two weeks to write this play that showcases her favorite comedic character, Sir John Falstaff. The dissolute Falstaff plans to seduce Mistress Ford and Mistress Page, two ''Merry Wives of Windsor,'' thereby gaining access to their husbands' wealth. The two women have the old rogue's measure, however, and Falstaff's plots lead only to his own humiliation. But the merry wives themselves fall prey to plotting as their plans to prevent Mistress Page's daughter Anne from marrying the young man she loves are frustrated in their turn.

[Full-Cast Audio Theater Dramatization. Frances Barber and Roger Allam are Kate and Petruchio. Lucentio is played by Alan Cox.] Love and wit conquer all in Shakespeare's sparkling comedy of self-delusion and disguise. Padua holds many suitors for the hand of fair Bianca, but Bianca may not be married until her spinster sister, Kate, is wed. Could any man be rash enough to take on Kate? The witty adventurer Petruchio undertakes the task. While he sets about transforming Kate from foul-tempered termagant to loving wife, young Lucentio and his clever servant, Tranio, plot to win Bianca.

[Full-Cast Audio Theater Dramatization. Sophie Thompson is Imogen, and Ben Porter is Posthumus. Cymbeline is played by Jack Shepherd while Suzanne Bertish is the Queen. Stephen Mangan plays Cloten, and Ron Cook plays Iachimo.]This strange, dark romance includes two songs composed by Shakespeare that are amongst the most beautiful in the English language. Imogen, the daughter of King Cymbeline, is persecuted by her wicked stepmother, the Queen, and by Cloten, the Queens doltish son. Disguised as a boy, she sets out to find her husband, the banished Posthumus. On her journey, she unwittingly meets her two brothers, stolen from the court as infants and brought up in rustic innocence, unaware of their princely identities. Posthumus, meanwhile, has been convinced by the villainous Iachimo that Imogen is unfaithful to him.

King Leontes of Sicilia is seized by sudden and terrible jealousy of his wife Hermione, whom he accuses of adultery. He believes the child Hermione is bearing was fathered by his friend Polixenes, and when the baby girl is born he orders her to be taken to some wild place and left to die. Though Hermione's child escapes death, Leontes' cruelty has terrible consequences. Loss paves the way for reunion, and life and hope are born out of desolation and despair.One of the late romances in Shakespeare's canon, this complex work is at times tragic, at times humorous, but always entertaining and enlightening.Sinead Cusack plays Hermione, and Ciaran Hinda plays Leontes. Eileen Atkins is Paulina and Paul Jesson is Polixenes. Time the Chorus is played by Sir John Gielgud.

[Full-Cast Audio Theater Dramatization. Alan Howard is Timon and Norman Rodway is Apemantus. Damian Lewis play Alcibiades.] This controversial play follows the declining fortunes of a man of extravagant contradictions. The fabulously rich Timon believes all his friends to be as open-hearted and generous as himself. When his wealth suddenly evaporates, however, he discovers the truth and his altruism turns to a bitter hatred of mankind. Stirred up by the cynical Apemantus, Timon retreats to the woods where he plots the destruction of Athens, the city that had formerly seemed to embody everything pleasurable and civilized. The cosmic scope of his hatred is communicated in a series of powerful and disturbing dramatic tableaux.

Shakespeare's most sophisticated comedy is a riotous tale of hopelessly unrequited passions and mistaken identity. Duke Orsino is in love with the noblewoman Olivia. She, however, has fallen for his servant Cesario, who is actually Viola, a woman disguised as a man, who loves Orsino: confusion is rife. Meanwhile, Olivia's arrogant steward Malvolio is cruelly tricked by her uncle Sir Toby Belch, his friend Sir Andrew Aguecheek, and the maidservant Maria into believing his mistress loves him. Niamh Cusack is Viola, Jonathan Firth is Orsino, Amanda Root plays Olivia, Dinsdale Landen plays Sir Toby Belch, and Julian Glover is Malvolio.

Henry V is a study of kingship, patriotism, and heroic determination tempered by tender comedy as Henry courts Katherine, princess of France. Henry, the noble and courageous young king of England, decides to invade France, believing he has a rightful claim to the throne. At Agincourt he leads his army into battle against the powerful French forces and, against all the odds, wins a famous victory. Henry is played by Jamie Glover, Brian Cox is the Chorus, and the Hostess is played by Elizabeth Spriggs.