Macbeth: The DVD Edition (Folger Shakespeare Library) - Softcover

Shakespeare, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1439172250 ISBN 13: 9781439172254

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2009

Synopsis

Macbeth: The DVD Edition includes everything you've come to expect from the Folger Shakespeare Library editions of Shakespeare's plays -- facing-page explanatory notes, scene-by-scene plot summaries, illustrations from the Folger archives -- combined here with a bonus DVD of a performance of Macbeth recorded before a rapt audience in the Folger's intimate Elizabethan Theatre. Conceived and directed by Teller (of Penn & Teller) and Aaron Posner, this acclaimed production showcases the inventive magic of Teller, who, with Posner, contributes a new foreword to this edition, writing about their vision of the play as a "supernatural horror thriller." Macbeth: The DVD Edition is the perfect volume for those encountering the play for the first time and for those finding brilliant new insights into a classic.

THIS DVD EDITION INCLUDES:
- DVD of the 2008 Folger Theatre/Two River Theater Company production -- with over 50 minutes of special features, including interviews with the directors, actors, designers, and scholars
- Foreword by directors Teller and Aaron Posner on the staging of Macbeth
- Freshly edited text based on the 1623 First Folio
- Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play
- A key to the play's famous lines and phrases
- An introduction to reading Shakespeare's language in Macbeth
- Illustrations from the Folger Shakespeare Library's vast holdings of rare books
- An essay by Susan Snyder that provides a modern perspective on the play

About this title

Review:

"The explosive and overwhelming effect of a truck bomb...this horrific, riveting Macbeth ought to be seen by as many people as possible." -- Terry Teachout, The Wall Street Journal

"Macbeth is a blast...ghoulish...beguiling...sardonic...an expression of how captivating an evening of crackling Shakespeare can be." -- Peter Marks, The Washington Post

About the Author:

William Shakespeare was born in April 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, on England's Avon River. When he was eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway. The couple had three children--an older daughter Susanna and twins, Judith and Hamnet. Hamnet, Shakespeare's only son, died in childhood. The bulk of Shakespeare's working life was spent in the theater world of London, where he established himself professionally by the early 1590s. He enjoyed success not only as a playwright and poet, but also as an actor and shareholder in an acting company. Although some think that sometime between 1610 and 1613 Shakespeare retired from the theater and returned home to Stratford, where he died in 1616, others believe that he may have continued to work in London until close to his death.

Barbara A. Mowat is Director of Research emerita at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Consulting Editor of Shakespeare Quarterly, and author of The Dramaturgy of Shakespeare's Romances and of essays on Shakespeare's plays and their editing.

Paul Werstine is Professor of English at the Graduate School and at King's University College at Western University. He is a general editor of the New Variorum Shakespeare and author of Early Modern Playhouse Manuscripts and the Editing of Shakespeare and of many papers and articles on the printing and editing of Shakespeare's plays.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1439172250
• ISBN 13: 9781439172254
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272