William Shakespeare

“King Richard II, eloquent, extravagant and certain of his divine right, banishes his cousin Henry Bolingbroke and seizes his inheritance. Bolingbroke returns with an army — and the anointed king, abandoned by his nobles, must give up his crown, and finds his voice only as he loses everything.”

“After the Wars of the Roses, Richard, Duke of Gloucester — brilliant, charming, bitter and utterly ruthless — sets out to clear every life that stands between him and the English crown: his brother, his nephews, his allies and his wife. Then the ghosts of his victims come to him on the eve of Bosworth.”

“King Henry IV, who took his crown from Richard II, faces rebellion from the fiery Hotspur and the Percy family — while his own son, Prince Hal, wastes his days in the taverns of Eastcheap with the fat, witty, lying, irresistible Sir John Falstaff. On the field of Shrewsbury, the prince must at last become himself.”

“Four young Athenian lovers run away into an enchanted wood on a midsummer night, where the quarrelling King and Queen of the Fairies and the mischievous Puck turn their hearts upside down — while a troupe of amateur actors rehearses a tragedy, and one of them is given the head of an ass.”

“The rebellion is broken but not ended, and King Henry IV is sick and sleepless. Falstaff, old and gouty, recruits soldiers in Gloucestershire and dreams of the day his friend Hal will be king. That day comes — and the new King Henry V does not know him.”

“The wild Prince Hal of Henry IV has become King Henry V. Claiming the crown of France, he leads a small English army across the Channel, takes Harfleur, and — sick, outnumbered and exhausted — faces the whole French chivalry on the field of Agincourt.”

“In Messina, the young soldier Claudio falls in love with gentle Hero, while her cousin Beatrice and the confirmed bachelor Benedick wage a merry war of wit. Their friends trick the two sharpest tongues in Sicily into love — and a villain's trick nearly destroys Hero on her wedding day.”

“To help his friend Bassanio woo the rich heiress Portia, the Venetian merchant Antonio borrows money from Shylock, a Jewish moneylender he has publicly scorned — on the bond that, if he cannot repay, Shylock may cut a pound of his flesh. When Antonio's ships are lost, Shylock demands his bond.”

“Prince Hamlet of Denmark is visited by his father's ghost, who tells him he was murdered by his own brother — now king, and married to Hamlet's mother. Charged with revenge, the brilliant, grieving, doubting prince feigns madness, and sets in motion a tragedy that will consume the whole court.”

“Old King Lear divides his kingdom between the two daughters who flatter him and banishes the one who truly loves him. Cast out by those he enriched, he wanders mad on the heath in a storm, while the loyal Earl of Gloucester, betrayed by his own son, pays a terrible price.”

“Othello, a Moorish general in the service of Venice, secretly marries Desdemona, a senator's daughter. His ensign Iago, who hates him, sets out to destroy him — and with a handkerchief, a few whispered hints and a genius for lies, persuades him that his innocent wife is unfaithful.”

“Banished from her usurping uncle's court, Rosalind flees to the Forest of Arden disguised as a young man, with her cousin Celia and the court fool. There she finds her banished father, a melancholy philosopher, and Orlando — the young man she loves, who is hanging love poems to her on every tree.”

“Rome, 44 BC. Fearing that the triumphant Julius Caesar will make himself king, a group of senators led by the envious Cassius and the noble Brutus stab him to death in the Capitol — and then lose Rome to the eloquence of his friend Mark Antony, and themselves to civil war.”

“Three witches on a Scottish heath tell the victorious general Macbeth that he shall be king. Urged on by his wife, he murders his king and takes the crown — and then must kill and kill again to keep it, as guilt, fear and prophecy close in on him.”

“In Padua, the gentle Bianca cannot marry until her sharp-tongued elder sister Katherina is wed. Enter Petruchio, a swaggering adventurer who has come to wive it wealthily — and who sets out to 'tame' Kate, while Bianca's suitors fill her father's house with disguises.”

“Shipwrecked on the coast of Illyria, Viola disguises herself as a young man and enters the service of Duke Orsino — who sends her to woo the Countess Olivia for him. Olivia falls in love with the messenger, Viola falls in love with the Duke, and then Viola's twin brother, whom she believes drowned, comes to town.”