The Latest Breaking News from Shakespeare

Fifteen questions on general knowledge and topical trivia plus a few jokes every Thursday – how will you fare?

The challenge of capturing the triumphs and crushing failures of the stage and concert hall in words has been taken on by writers from Shakespeare to Virginia Woolf and Eimear McBride

Instead of briefing MPs on his India visit, Boris Johnson headed north to kick a football around and quote Shakespeare

David Tennant, who played the tenth Doctor Who under Russell T Davies' tenure, is now the odds-on favourite to become the next Doctor and replace Jodie Whittaker

Gregory Doran has achieved much at the RSC and directed some fine productions. Let’s have an actor in charge next: how about Adjoa Andoh or Simon Russell Beale?

Only two days separate Anzac Day and Shakespeare’s (presumed) birthday and actual death-day. This proximity is coincidental. But amid a war in Ukraine, being reported in horrifyingly graphic detail from the point of view of the victims, and given Shakespeare is the world’s most-quoted, most-performed and most studied writer, it…

The novelist Nina Stibbe has watched her mum cast off friends at the drop of a hat. Is it time to follow suit?

With their portrait of a wobbling monarchy and egotistical leadership, these rare stagings are particularly topical

Epic holds our attention with unforgettable visuals and the sheer, raw audacity of its premise.

Although I’m wary of declaring any literary work to be the greatest ever, Shakespeare’s Hamlet would be a frontrunner. It’s often proclaimed to be or voted Shakespeare’s best play (Google it). It has countless film adaptations, is widely referenced, and even gets a homage of sorts in The Simpsons.

Director Robert Eggers brings the Viking epic back to the big screen in a big, bold and bloody way with “The Northman,” starring Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgard in a new retelling of the myth of Amleth, the Scandinavian legend that inspired Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” Eggers, who made a splash with his…