Through the study of five plays – currently Romeo and Juliet, Henry V, Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure, and Hamlet (though selections may change each semester) – this course aims to provide an introduction to the extraordinary artistic scope of Shakespeare’s work across genres. Each play will be examined in its context, with extensive investigation of the nature of surviving texts, narrative and dramatic sources, and the wider cultural moment of its creation.

Students will explore the richness and complexity of Shakespearean language and stagecraft, characterisation, and the plays’ thematic preoccupations, as well as thinking about aspects of their reception and critical history down the centuries. The aim is for students to deepen, broaden, and add rigour to their enjoyment of plays both new and already familiar.

Related study trip

Students will have the opportunity to attend, evaluate, and discuss a production of one of the selected plays by a leading UK theatre company.

ASE reserves the right to change the content of course-specific study trips where necessary.