This Wide and Universal Theater: Shakespeare and Performance Then and Now
By David Bevington
University of Chicago Press $25

Internationally influential critic David Bevington situates the playwright firmly in the theatre. His book offers a timely reminder of Shakespearean drama’s physical manifestation, often forgotten in the recent rash of books and biographies such as those by Harold Bloom, Jonathan Bate and Stephen Greenblatt.

He considers the plays as theatrical events, looks at their staging and examines the ways they have been reimagined, particularly in the later 20th century.

The wealth of detail will ensure the reader looks anew at plays. Bevington makes interesting, nuanced and original points about staging and interpretation that reveal the dynamism and complexity of Shakespeare’s canon.