a full cast

Alice’s adventures continue in this dramatized version of the timeless classic. Join Alice as she steps through a mirror into a strange new world where she encounters very peculiar characters, including a giant egg named Humpty Dumpty, the two odd brothers Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Tiger Lily, and the White Knight. Featuring stellar performances by a full cast of talented voice actors with music and sound effects. Expect the unexpected in this incredible journey into fantasy.

This delightful collection of thirteen children’s classic stories features Alice in Wonderland*, The Bell, A Christmas Carol, Cinderella*, Emily of New Moon, The Little Match Girl, The Little Mermaid, Little Red Riding Hood, Scourge of the Desert**, The Secret Garden, Sleeping Beauty*, Snow White*, and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

*Awarded Gold (full-cast dramatization) – HEAR Now: The Audio Fiction and Arts Festival
** International Radio Festival Winner

Stories from the Forest is an anthology of children’s classic tales set in the woods. This collection includes Winnie-the-Pooh narrated by multiaward-winning golden voice Barbara Rosenblat, Little Red Riding Hood narrated by ATC Seneca Award nominee for Best Leading Actress (Cinderella) Georgia Lee Schultz, and Snow White, a full-cast audio theater presentation.

Snow White — Awarded Gold by HEAR NOW: The Audio Fiction and Arts Festival
Winnie-the-Pooh — Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award

A Voices in the Wind Audio Theatre Production and The First Noelle Productions

The Secret Garden, one of the most popular children’s stories of all time, comes to life in this magical audio theatre presentation featuring Golden Voice Barbara Rosenblat (from the original 1991 Tony Award–winning Broadway show) as Mrs. Medlock, Golden Voice Michael Crouch as Colin, ATC Seneca Award Nominee for Best Actress Georgia Lee Schultz as Mary Lennox, and John Jarvis as Ben Weatherstaff. Engaging sound effects and music enhance this full-cast dramatization.

Frances Hodgson Burnett introduces us to Mary Lennox, a spoiled and headstrong young girl sent to live with her uncle Archibald Craven at Misselthwaite Manor after her parents die from a cholera outbreak in India. At first, Mary is as sour and rude as ever. She dislikes her new home, the people living in it, and, most of all, the bleak moor on which it sits.

However, Mary soon discovers an abandoned secret garden behind the gate in the manor. Slowly her ill health and attitude change when she meets Dickon, a local boy who has a way with animals, and sickly Colin. Together they transform the garden and become close friends, transforming each other in the process.

The Secret Garden explores themes of rejuvenation, isolation, happiness, what it truly means to be weak or strong, and what truly makes a home.

The Secret Garden was a finalist for three ATC Seneca Awards:
BEST LEADING ACTRESS — Georgia Lee Schultz for her role as Mary Lennox 
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS — Barbara Rosenblat for her role as Mrs. Medlock

and

BEST COVER ART — Larissa Ezell for cover design and illustration

A Voices in the Wind Audio Theatre Production

This enticing ensemble of children’s classic stories with sound effects and original songs features a full cast of voice actors, including multi-award-winning voice talent Barbara Rosenblat and ATC Seneca Award nominee Georgia Lee Schultz. Included in the collection are Alice in Wonderland, Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, and International Radio Festival winner Scourge of the Desert. An engaging listening experience for the young and the young at heart!

Sleeping Beauty magically comes to life in this adaptation of the timeless classic featuring multi-award-winning voice talent Barbara Rosenblat and Georgia Lee Schultz as Aurora.

On the birth of Princess Aurora, an evil fairy places a curse on her and declares that before the sun sets on her sixteenth birthday, she will die by pricking her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel. To protect her from the evil spell, the king agrees to place Aurora in the care of three spirited good fairies who live in a cottage in the woods. One of the fairies conjures a spell so Aurora will fall into a deep sleep instead, to be awakened only by a kiss from her true love.

This dramatized version of Sleeping Beauty features a full cast of beloved characters accompanied by original music and sound effects.

A Voices in the Wind Audio Theatre production

In this beloved children’s tale, Dorothy, her dog Toto, and their Kansas farmhouse are carried away by a tornado to a faraway country called Oz. It’s a magical, fantastical land of Munchkins, wizards, and wicked witches. But it’s no place like home …

Desperate to return to Kansas, Dorothy and Toto, and their newfound friends Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion, set out on a perilous journey along the yellow brick road in search of the Emerald City. There they hope to meet the legendary and all-powerful Wizard of Oz, who alone has the power to grant them their every wish!

This dramatized version of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz features a full cast of beloved characters, accompanied by music and sound effects. Children—and adults—will find their imaginations fully engaged by this audio presentation of the great American classic.

A Voices in the Wind Audio Theatre production

This Holiday Bundle features six entertaining and delightful audio stories for the whole family to enjoy year-round. The perfect stocking stuffer for the audiobook lovers on your list! Each story is performed by a full cast of voice actors with sound effects and music.

Includes Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, The Bell by Hans Christian Andersen, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Cinderella by Charles Perrault, Snow White by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.

When Carolina and Trevor meet on their first day of school, something draws them to each other. They gradually share first kisses, first touches, first everythings. When they’re together, nothing else matters. But one of them will make a choice, and the other a mistake, that will break what they thought was unbreakable. Both will wish they could fall in love again for the first time—but first love, by definition, can’t happen twice.

Told in Carolina’s and Trevor’s alternating voices, this is an up-close-and-personal story of two teenagers falling in love for the first time … and discovering it might not last forever.

In this classic children’s tale of triumph over adversity, Cinderella is condemned to a life of servitude by an uncaring stepmother and the constant torment of her jealous stepsisters. Throughout her suffering, Cinderella maintains her kindness, until one day she is rewarded by meeting her true love—the handsome Prince.

Featuring Georgia Lee Schultz (Alice in Wonderland, Snow White) as Cinderella, Mary Ellen Herder (Snow White) as the Stepmother and Michael Dick as the Narrator. This dramatized version features a full cast of characters, music, and engaging sound effects.

The award-winning and critically acclaimed Wireless Theatre Company strives to keep radio theater alive and well. Collected here are six full-cast dramatizations that are sure to send shivers down your spine.

Windover
By Brita Bradbury
Directed by Cherry Cookson

This ghost story is set on the wild Atlantic coast of North Devon, told through the eyes of Jenny, a girl of nearly nineteen, whose recently deceased grandmother Mary has bequeathed her “Windover,” the cottage where she is staying with her father and his girlfriend during summer vacation. Before long, Jenny is troubled by visions of two teenage girls and learns, from a photograph taken in 1934, that these girls are her grandmother Mary and Mary’s friend Cathy. As the days go by, Jenny finds herself drawn into the tragic events that occurred nearly eighty years earlier.

Burke & Hare
By Terence Newman
Directed by Robert Valentine

Burke & Hare is the story of the infamous nineteenth-century Scottish grave-robbers who weren’t Scottish and didn’t rob graves. They were actually Irish, and since robbing graves to supply the needs of Edinburgh’s anatomists proved to be rather hard work, they just took to murdering people—usually their neighbors—for profit. In collaboration with their common-law wives, they set about supplying corpses for Dr. John Knox, an eminent Scottish surgeon with considerable enthusiasm and gusto. The play follows their business exploits, from small beginnings, through their days of peak output, and to the final reckoning—set against a world that is becoming recognizably modern.

The Cask of Amontillado
By Edgar Allan Poe

The Cask of Amontillado is Edgar Allan Poe’s short but enigmatic masterpiece. Set in an unnamed Italian City, we hear the story of how Montresor lures Fortunato through the catacombs into the Montreso family vault, where he chains him up and bricks him in for eternity. Why he does it we will never know, but he does so with a casual savagery that is truly chilling.

The Woman on the Bridge
By Marty Ross
Directed by David Beck

Chatsworth House during the Second World War. The Devonshire family makes way for an evacuated girls’ school, the grand interiors converted to dormitories and classrooms. Pupils Ceri and Gwyneth explore these new surroundings and their history, above and below stairs. But a ghost story about a screaming woman on the bridge on the grounds seems disturbingly true—and all the more disturbing for the parallels it presents with the secret love affair they discover their charismatic teacher Miss Cairns is involved in.

Crooker’s Kingdom, Part One and Crooker’s Kingdom, Part Two
By Marty Ross
Directed by Robert Valentine

Sir Richard Arkwright has brought modernity to a remote corner of Derbyshire with the creation of Cromford Mill. Now, as his crowning glory, he’s going to build himself a castle—but first a strange outcrop of rocks will have to be removed. Locals warn Arkwright of a local legend about “Crooker,” a dangerous nature spirit, but Sir Richard scoffs at such notions—until it becomes clear an uncanny force in the landscape is prepared to fight him for ownership of the valley. Recorded on Halloween night, 2015, at Cromford Mills itself, Wireless Theatre and playwright Marty Ross present another unique live radio drama recording, mingling Cromford’s history with the supernatural chills of an authentic local legend.

From filmmaker and New Yorker contributor Susanna Fogel comes a comedic novel about a fractured family of New England Jews and their discontents. Told entirely in letters to a heroine we never meet, we get to know the Fellers through their check-ins with Julie over the course of three decades: their thank-you notes, letters of condolence, family gossip, and good old-fashioned familial passive-aggression.

Together, their missives—some sardonic, others absurd, others heartbreaking—weave a tapestry of a very modern family trying (and often failing) to show one another they care.

The titular “nuclear family” includes, among many others, a narcissistic former-child-prodigy father who has taken up haiku writing in his old age and his new wife, a traditional Chinese woman whose attempts to help her stepdaughter find a man include FedExing her silk gowns from Filene’s Basement; their six-year-old son, Stuart, whose favorite condiment is truffle oil and who wears suits to bed; and Julie’s mother, a psychologist who never remarried but may be in love with her arrogant Rabbi and overshares about everything, including the threesome she had with Dutch grad students in 1972.

Bring history back to life through Jim Hodges' historically accurate, exciting and edifying audio recordings.

Victor Hugo wrote in his classic Les Mis├®rables, Book 5, Chapter 4: "God is behind everything, but everything hides God." I don't know if you have seen either the stage musical or the movie rendition of Victor Hugo's immortal classic Les Mis├®rables (an epic story of redemption set in Paris after the French Revolution) but I have never seen a production that more clearly illustrates the saving grace of God and the change that can be had for anyone willing to accept it.

This 1937 Old Time Radio Show dramatization, written, produced, and performed by none other than the incomparable Orson Wells, of "War of the Worlds" fame. The story is faithfully retold (with questionable subjects carefully camouflaged) and is suitable for students aged 10 and older. This live recording, masterfully performed by an incredible professional cast, includes sound effects, music, and an unforgettable story. You will not be disappointed.

Look for the Old Time Radio Show Collection from the 30s, 40s, and 50s! These classic stories will capture your attention as they reenact history in short programs.

Bring history back to life through Jim Hodges’ historically accurate, exciting and edifying audio recordings.

Which president liked to ‘lose’ his protective service officers so he could take walks alone? Which president’s life was actually threatened while in the White House? Which president challenged his military officers to improve their physical fitness by making a 100-mile horseback ride in a day? Which President got a speeding ticket – for driving his horse and buggy too fast? Which President got into a fistfight with his Director of Veterans Affairs over corruption charges? Listen to this fascinating Old Time Radio program and you will know!

Look for the Old Time Radio Show Collection from the 30s, 40s, and 50s! These classic stories will capture your attention as they reenact history in short programs.

As Christmas approaches, John, a modern-day working father, seems a little more stressed out than usual. With his lovely wife, Eve, and adoring teenage children, Chris, Brooke, and little Anna-Magdalena at his side, what could possibly go wrong? Well, just about everything—including an unexpected visit from his in-laws, the never-ending seasonal to-do list, the annoying neighborhood kids, and that man-eating Christmas tree. And through it all, his smiling coworker, Dennis, sets him up for the ultimate disaster at work.

Join John and his family as they take you on a madcap dash through the festive season filled with laughter, tears, reconciliation, friendship, and joy. It’s a holiday treat for the whole family!

This full-cast dramatization by award-winning radio dramatist George Zarr features original music and engaging sound effects.

In this classic tale adapted from a short story by Hans Christian Andersen, the residents of the little village of Langtvæk awaken one overcast morning to the distant ringing of a bell. Forced to wear earplugs to drown out the constant tolling, the sleepless king offers a reward to anyone who finds and stops the bell from ringing.

Lecia, a young impoverished girl from the village, volunteers to set out on the dangerous quest into the Dark Forest of No Return and earn the reward money for her mother. Along the way she meets Frederik, a handsome young boy who plays a wooden flute. As they continue their journey together, they encounter bonkberries, a treacherous ravine, and come face to face with a tritch—a tricky witch. A growing fondness develops between the two, but will it be enough for them to survive the ordeal and collect the reward?

This delightful full-cast dramatization by award-winning radio dramatist George Zarr features original music and songs with captivating sound effects.

This delightful collection of children’s stories is perfect listening for the whole family. Featured are four beloved stories to entice your imagination, including A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, The Bell by Hans Christian Andersen, and Snow White by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.

Each story is performed by a full cast of voice actors with sound effects and music.

SNOW WHITE

By Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

Adapted for audio by Diane Vanden Hoven

In this classic tale of good and evil, Snow White is pursued by a revengeful Queen who is jealous of her natural beauty and goodness. Undeterred, the Queen learns of Snow White’s hiding place with the Dwarfs in the woods and prepares a plan to poison her with an apple.

Featuring Georgia Lee Schultz (Alice In Wonderland) as Snow White and Mary Ellen Herder as The Evil Queen. This dramatized version features a full cast of characters, music and sound effects. Join Snow White as she journeys into the world of The Evil Queen, Udo the Huntsman, the Magic Mirror, the Prince, Deidre the Dove, Albrecht the Owl and the deep dark woods.

Performed by a Full Cast

Directed by Laura Van Veen

Runtime: Approximately 60 minutes

Voices In The Wind Audio Theatre

Publisher: Design Sound Productions

Full Cast Dramatization / Audio Theatre / Radio Drama

Release Date: November 22, 2016

When a riot breaks out at Twin Towers Jail, “life on the inside” takes on a whole new meaning.

Is there a mathematical formula for love? Can a New York City tour guide with a gift for seeing what others overlook find it in time? This charming, modern romantic comedy recasts the classic love story of Cupid and Psyche in Frank Sinatra’s hometown with twelve original songs, from swinging jazz to indie folk.

When New York City tour guide Caroline Cates uses Euclid’s proof of perfect numbers to find true love on a deadline, she meets a pushy male matchmaker, Jimmy Foss, in a Sinatra impersonators’ club in Hoboken, New Jersey. Only Caroline can see Jimmy. But he’s great at bringing couples together, so she hires him.

Can this odd couple find Caroline’s perfect match in time? The answer will take you on a tour of fascinating fictional landmarks and help you solve the music-driven mystery that connects Caroline’s favorite overlooked landmark—the grave of the nineteenth-century poet Enid Hobb—to Jimmy’s family history and the #1 pop song of the spring.

From the hilarious to the terrifying, this diverse collection features ten Wireless Theatre productions in a single volume:

We Are the BBC by Susan Casanove, directed by Jack Bowman

Rob Sterling Davies is on the crest of a wave—and apparently Stephen Fry’s new best friend. But all isn’t quite as it seems.

We Are Not the BBC by Susan Casanove, directed by Jack Bowman

Things start to look up for the members of an amateur dramatics society when a visiting celebrity steps in and plays the lead role.

No Cause for Alarm by Gareth Rubin

No Cause for Alarm is a silly play. It has no comment to make about the human condition, love in the twenty-first century, or the Iraq war.

Stage Fright by Lynn Howes, directed by Emma Taylor

Stage Fright charts the struggle for supremacy between three actors appearing in a play together.

The Mighty Carlins by Collin Doyle, directed by Paul Blinkhorn

On the anniversary of his wife’s death, Leo Carlin and his two sons come together for their traditional night of sharing good and bad memories.

Blood and Stone by Marty Ross, directed by Mariele Runacre Temple

The “Bloody Lady of Cachtice” was bricked up in her own castle for murder. Why then does the young Katya want a job looking after the countess?

The St. Valentine’s Day Murder written and directed by Peter Davis

It’s Valentine’s Day, but events turn less than romantic when one of the members of a dating site is murdered.

Laying Ghosts by Clare Reddaway, directed by Emily Wright

When Connie’s beloved husband Jack dies, Connie hopes that her only son, Gary, will console her. Gary, however, has other plans.

Emails from Abroad by Julia Messenger and Shirley Mawer

Emails from Abroad is a play based on travels abroad relayed by emails between the ingenuous first-time traveler and her disillusioned home-bound sister.

The Trial of Sherlock Holmes by Peter Davis and Matthew Woodcock

Charged with endangering the public, Holmes is forced to relive some of his most bizarre cases.

The award-winning and critically acclaimed Wireless Theatre Company strives to keep radio theater alive and well. From the hilarious to the terrifying, this diverse collection features ten Wireless Theatre productions in a single volume:

Spook Squad by Jim Spiers, directed by Jack Bowman

2010: Space Commander! by Stuart Price, directed by David Beck

Dream On by Paul Ekert, directed by Tom Brazier

The Grimm of Stottesden Hall, written and directed by Stuart Price

Phonophobia by Jack Bowman and Robert Valentine, directed by Tom Brazier

Medusa on the Beach by Marty Ross

The Youth of Old Age, written and directed by Stuart Price

Devon Girl by Zalie Burrow, directed by Cherry Cookson

Radio Hoohah, written and directed by Octavia MacKenzie and Ashley McGuire

Angels in the Dark, written and directed by Susan Casanove

A high school reunion turns deadly in this full-cast adaptation of Denise Dietz’s charming mystery.

Ingrid Beaumont’s thirtieth high school class reunion turns up a few surprises. Her friend, world-renowned artist Wylie Jamestone, turns up dead; her ex-husband turns up alive; and her high school sweetheart turns up at her door. Wylie’s love of riddles forces Ingrid to turn sleuth if she wants to keep the killer from turning her life completely upside down.

A full-cast production based on the novel by award-winning, bestselling author Linda Lea Castle

The year is 1208, a time when most heiresses do their duty. But not Elsbeth of Camley, for she would rather join a holy order than be bartered off and expected to breed well and often. Elsbeth flees to Lambeth Abbey with her dower coin and unwittingly sets off a chain of events that threatens the balance of power in England.

Because of his bold rescue of the lady and her dower, Sir Roger of Angelsey earns a barony and substantial amounts of land. But he must lose no time in making his betrothed his wife in order to keep his title. It’s not an easy task when the lady conspires with those who plot against his king, and it’s downright impossible when he realizes he does not want a wife unless he can lay claim to her heart.

A full-cast production inspired by Pygmalion, Shaw’s classic drawing room tale of language and class division, and its musical incarnation, My Fair Lady

PIGmalion tells the story of one Eliza Doolittle, who sells homemade pork rinds at the Tri-Counties Fair and Livestock Show. The daughter of a hardscrabble Mississippi pig farmer, Eliza dreams of someday working as a waitress at “one of those nice downtown barbecue restaurants where all the tourists go.”

S. H. Baker vividly depicts the beauty and liveliness of the Louisiana Bayou following WWI in her mystery series featuring Cajun lawman Dassas Cormier.

Dassas Cormier, a dashing young Frenchman in southwest Louisiana, is torn between his Acadian heritage and the excitement of the Roaring Twenties. He returns home after a tragic end to his police career to find two murders have taken place in Marshall’s Bayou—a town where nothing ever happens. And the woman of his dreams seems to be involved in at least one of the crimes.

Playwright Mark Dunn presents four audio plays about Southern women.

In Dix Tableaux, two women chart the course of each other’s lives, nurturing a friendship that, in the end, becomes the strongest and most sustaining of their lives.

Van Choc Straw is a bittersweet comedy about tenuous family ties and the often stronger bonds of friendship that lattice the final years of our lives.

Inspired by My Fair Lady, PIGmalion tells the story of Eliza Doolittle, who sells pork rinds and dreams of working as a waitress at “one of those nice downtown barbecue restaurants where all the tourists go.”

Deep in the Heart is a serious comedy about the value of family and friendship, the importance of self-forgiveness, and the special healing joy that comes to those who know how to “drink life to the dregs.”

The drunken moonshiner from 2012 Audie Finalist Return to Marshall’s Bayou is the unexpected hero in Sarah Storme’s newest romance.

Captain Joshua Wakefield finds a second chance at love, this time with a young woman who enjoys defying convention … when she thinks her parents aren’t looking.

The authenticity of the characters and depth of emotion in this beautifully written story demanded a production equal to the storytelling. Angel in My Arms, with its weaving of voices and mixing of textures and musical score, ventures into new territory in the field of audio romance.

A full-cast production by award-winning playwright Mark Dunn

Played out over the course of ten years, Dix Tableaux is a story of friendship between two women in their sixties. Each year represents another reunion for Beverly and Addie, two participants in a series of annual tableaux sponsored by a museum in Dix, a small city in the South.

A serious comedy about the value of family and friendship, the importance of self-forgiveness, and the special healing joy that comes to those who know how to “drink life to the dregs.”

Deep in the Heart, adapted from the award-winning comedy-drama The Deer and the Antelope Play, tells the story of an East Texas family—a mother, daughter, and grandmother—who face tragedy and assorted misfortunes head-on with the help of the strange young woman, believed to be a former prostitute, who comes to live with them.

IN THE EMBERS
An Independent Feature-Length Audio Drama by Brian Price and Jerry Stearns

Length: 215 minutes (3 hours, 35 minutes, 50 seconds)

Authors: Brian Price; Jerry Stearns

Narrators (in this order): Edwin Strout, Robin Miles, Olivia DuFord, Dawn Krosnowski, Gordon Smuder, Susanne Becker, Tom Joyal, Charlie Meitzner, Dean Johnson, Jacquie Maddix, E. G. Bailey, (interview extras: Joe Bevilacqua, Jerry Stearns, Brian Price)

(c) (p) 2015 Brian Price and Jerry Stearns, Great Northern Audio, in association with Waterlogg Productions

Description:

A song, a pressed flower, and the sound of two girl’s voices recovered from a burned wooden beam by using a brand new laser technique to read a charred surface like the grooves of an old 78rpm record. These are the clues that archaeologist, Digger Morgan, discovers while working on a routine dig at a Maryland Plantation. Who were the girls? When was the fire? The answers all lead to 1920s jazz pioneer, Kit Jeffers, whose voice mysteriously appears on Digger’s computer and whose existence remains haunted by a singular tragic event.

With the sound design, rhythm and detail of an independent film, IN THE EMBERS stars Audie-Award winner, Robin Miles, and features an original score, inventive sound effects and a fine ensemble cast.

BONUS TRACKS: Music from the production and interviews with the cast.

CAST:

Edwin Strout – Digger Morgan
Robin Miles – Kit Jeffers
Olivia DuFord – Young Alice Jeffers
Dawn Krosnowski – Susan
Gordon Smuder – Tom
Susanne Becker – Cindy
Tom Joyal – Berringer
Charlie Meitzner – Denny
Dean Johnson – Epstein
Jacquie Maddix – Old Alice
E. G. Bailey – Reynolds

IN THE EMBERS Review:
“The story is excellent, the music is excellent, the audio quality is excellent, and so are the actors. This is a drama that goes in the permanent collection.”
— Scott Danielson, SFFaudio.com

“Fascinating story, with some terrific performances.”
— Stefan Rudnicki, actor and narrator

In the Beginning ­is an audio drama series featuring stories from the Holy Bible. Performed in the style of the old time radio plays from yesteryear, each fully dramatized story is professionally performed by some of Hollywood’s best voice talent. This story begins with the creation of the world and continues through to the original sin, the fall of man, and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from paradise.

In the Beginning ­is an audio drama series featuring stories from the Holy Bible. Performed in the style of the old time radio plays from yesteryear, each fully dramatized story is professionally performed by some of Hollywood’s best voice talent.

In the Beginning: The Great Flood covers the story of Noah and his life-long journey to build the ark, the destruction of Earth by floodwaters, and God’s covenant with Noah and his descendants.

In the Beginning ­is an audio drama series featuring stories from the Holy Bible. Performed in the style of the old time radio plays from yesteryear, each fully dramatized story is professionally performed by some of Hollywood’s best voice talent, including Joe Estevez, Daniel Roebuck, Nancy Stafford, Michael Sorich, Kyle Hebert, Kimberly Woods, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, Tim Goodwin, and Jason J. Lewis. Written, directed, and produced by Kevin Herren.

This volume includes three titles:

In the Beginning: Creation begins with creation and continues through to the original sin, the fall of man, and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from paradise.

In the Beginning: The Great Flood covers the story of Noah and his life-long journey to build the ark, the destruction of earth by floodwaters, and God’s covenant with Noah and his descendants.

In the Beginning: Let My People Go covers the birth of Moses, his adoption by Pharaoh’s daughter, the calling of Moses by God to free the Israelites from Egyptian bondage, the ten plagues, and the exodus from Egypt.

In the Beginning ­is an audio drama series featuring stories from the Holy Bible. Performed in the style of the old time radio plays from yesteryear, each fully dramatized story is professionally performed by some of Hollywood’s best voice talent. This story covers the birth of Moses, his adoption by Pharaoh’s daughter, the calling of Moses by God to free the Israelites from Egyptian bondage, the ten plagues, and the exodus from Egypt.

This is the perfect stocking stuffer for the audiobook lovers on your list. This special holiday collection features three entertaining and delightful stories for the entire family to enjoy.

The Spirit of Christmas Day (The First Noelle Productions) by George Zarr is an uplifting and humorous story filled with an inspirational message of hope. John, a stressed-out working father, embarks on a journey of reconnection with the true meaning of today’s Christmas. This is a new holiday tradition featuring a full cast of characters, music, and sound effects. Also includes The Week After It’s Christmas Day.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens tells the classic tale of a miserly man who comes to realize the true spirit of Christmas. This recording features virtuoso performances from the entire cast, riveting sound effects, and original music.

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll comes to life again in this dramatized version of the timeless classic, with stellar performances by Georgia Lee Schultz as Alice, and multi-award-winning Barbara Rosenblat as the Mouse, Duchess, Cheshire Cat, and the Queen. This version features a full cast of characters, music, and sound effects.

Credits:

The Spirit of Christmas Day / The Week After It’s Christmas Day

FEATURING KEITH BURNETT AS THE DAD

Cast: Denise Benoit, Sarah Buchanan, Keith Burnett, Bill Craven, Georgia Craven, Sam Craven, Will Craven, Celeste Dupuis, Noelle Dupuis, Emma McDonald, Georgia Lee Schultz, and Laura Van Veen

Written, directed, and music composed by George Zarr

Executive producer: Noelle Dupuis

Recording engineer: David Farquhar

A Christmas Carol

FEATURING MICHAEL DICK AS EBENEZER SCROOGE

MICHAEL DICK: Ebenezer Scrooge BOB TELFER: Narrator, Fezziwig and Businessman BILL TYE: Marley’s Ghost and Businessman NORM MCLEOD: First Spirit JAN HOLT: Second Spirit, Charwomen and Party Guest OLIVER GEORGIOU: Young Scrooge and Nephew Fred NOELLE DUPUIS: Mrs. Cratchit KEITH BURNETT: Bob Cratchit and Old Joe ALEX TOMASZEWSKI: Charity Seeker Poole and Peter Cratchit LAURA VAN VEEN: Martha, Belle and Third Spirit ALEXANDRAPOOLE: Kate PAT GOUGH: Mrs. Dilber HOPE O’BRIEN: Fan and Party Guest SHANESSA HARRIS: Peggy, Buck and Street Kid BURKE BECHARD: Belinda and Boy Caroler CELESTE DUPUIS: Tiny Tim DAVID FARQUHAR: Party Guest GEORGE ZARR: Businessman

Directed by George Zarr and Noelle Dupuis

Executive Producer/Recording Engineer/Post Production: David Farquhar

Recording/Mastering: Brett Sansom

Alice in Wonderland

FEATURING GEORGIA LEE SCHULTZ AS ALICE

AND

BARBARA ROSENBLAT AS THE MOUSE, DUCHESS, CHESHIRE CAT, AND THE QUEEN

Along with

ALEXANDRA POOLE: Sister, MICHAEL DICK: Rabbit and March Hare, BOB TELFER: Dodo, Pat, Fish and Mad Hatter, BRADY VAN VAERENBERGH: Parrot and Caterpillar, ALAINA WALKER: Duck and Two, BILL TYE: Bill, Mock Turtle and Five, KEITH BURNETT: Dormouse, NORM MCLEOD: Seven, DAVID FARQUHAR: Knave, GREG SHEEN: King

Adapted for Audio by Diane Vanden Hoven

Codirected by Pat Gough and Laura Van Veen

Executive producer: David Farquhar

Recording engineer/sound design/mixing: David Farquhar

‘My Garden Back Home’ music and lyrics by George Zarr, performed by Georgia Lee Schultz, used by permission

Midway between the satire of Spinal Tap and the pathos of American Beauty lies the schizophrenic state of mind known as Hog Fever. On the surface this is the story of a man, a motorcycle, and a teetering bank balance. But lurking beneath, occasionally visible like threads through faded denim, is the story of a man in search of freedom—or at least one last stab at it.

Motivated by the emasculating success of his British screenwriter wife and a love of Easy Rider and The Wild One, Robert Lourdes, a struggling American author on the cusp of forty, finds solace in the Harley-Davidson legend. Robert’s last-ditch attempt to become part of his wife’s world ends in disaster when she blatantly co-opts his idea for a screenplay during a dinner party for a hideous Hollywood producer.

The arrival of Gabriella, a beautiful Italian production assistant with a Harley of her own, stirs in Robert the first tremors of a long-dormant passion. Confused and lacking the confidence to shed the marital skin, he takes further refuge in shiny accessories, rallies, and bigger Harleys, culminating in a 1,700-mile pilgrimage to a major biker rally in Marbella, Spain.

Hog Fever is Robert’s comedy of errors as he embarks on a tattoo-and-testosterone-fueled quest to find himself.

When veteran award-winning radio theater producer Joe Bevilacqua (Joe Bev) was a student in his final semester at Kean College (now Kean University) in 1982, he designed his own course, in which he produced and directed a radio version of Hamlet.

Casting Kean faculty and students, and portraying the melancholy Danish prince himself, Bevilacqua not only completed his nearly four-hour radio adaption of Shakespeare’s greatest work, he did so while carrying a double major in speech-theater-media-communication and English; producing, acting in, and sometimes writing radio plays for the WKNJ Radio Theater he founded at the college station; rehearsing and portraying Dr. Martn Dysart in Equus on the Kean Stage; and working twenty hours per week as the assistant manager of Kean’s Writing and Math Lab.

After graduating summa cum laude, Bevilacqua saw his production of Hamlet picked up and distributed by the National Federation of Community Broadcasters (NFCB) and aired on public radio stations nationwide.

Bevilacqua went on to become one of the most prolific radio drama producers in the United States, as well as an on-camera actor in such films as The Fly Room and The Better Angels and in television shows, including portraying British General Bernard Montgomery in the History Channel’s The Wars and the head of NBC in 1931 for HBO’s Boardwalk Empire.

The master reels of Joe Bevilacqua’s radio production of Hamlet were lost in the 1980s. On January 6, 2015, while going through some old files, Bevilacqua came across an NFCB newsletter listing a number of his radio dramas, including Hamlet. He then traced the NFCB collection to the University of Maryland Libraries, where it now resides.

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare at an uncertain date between 1599 and 1602. Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatizes the revenge Prince Hamlet is instructed to enact on his uncle Claudius. Claudius had murdered his own brother, Hamlet’s father, and subsequently seized the throne, marrying his deceased brother’s widow, Gertrude.

From the NFCB newsletter:

This four-hour drama is both faithful to Shakespeare and creative in presentation. The acting is of professional quality. Joe Bev highlights the play as Hamlet by using great change of pace and dynamics, articulation and believability, along with superb vocal range. After hearing a tape of the production, veteran voice-man Daws Butler (Yogi Bear) said, “It is among the best Hamlets I have ever heard.”

Other highlights are the ghost’s reverb processed bass and Claudius attempting to pray after murdering the king.

Tech is good, the acting is excellent. You will understand every word and get the full range of meaning (from tragic to comic) from the characters! Great use of sound effects and music!

BONUS TRACK: “Another Point of View (Hamlet Revisited),” originally aired on the CBS Radio Workshop June 22, 1956.

An analytical misrepresentation of Shakespeare’s greatest hero, with William Conrad (narrator, author), Ben Wright (Hamlet, author), and John McIntire.

A chilling reenactment of the federal government’s anti-Communist investigations

The testimony that Eric Bentley has gleaned for this book from the thirty-year record of the House Un-American Activities Committee focuses on HUAC’s treatment of artists, intellectuals, and performers. This highly dramatic and compelling collection of significant excerpts from the hearings shows with painful clarity how HUAC grew from a panel that investigated possible subversive activities in a “dignified” manner to a huge, unrelenting accusatory finger from which almost no one was safe. Thirty Years of Treason serves as a warning for the future and creates living history from the documentary record.

For Lavella Ambergundy, the time was near when she would learn that not everything was as she believed it to be. The life she had known thus far was not to last much longer, and she would soon see what others could not. In the land of Antropia, where magic is a way of life, the Black Witch Kurolyn and her Dark Magic Clan have enslaved people and animals alike, destroying the Order of the Sages that had kept peace for so long. Two brave mages made the ultimate sacrifice when they sent their unborn daughter through time and space to the other side, so that she might one day return to Antropia and liberate her people. With the help of her powerful Djèmokin guides and a secret weapon lying in wait, Lavella crosses over to fulfill the destiny her parents had created.

Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland comes to life again in this dramatized version of the timeless classic, with stellar performances by Georgia Lee Schultz as Alice, and multi-award-winning Barbara Rosenblat as the Mouse, Duchess, Cheshire Cat, and the Queen. This version features a full cast of characters, music, and sound effects and introduces the original song "My Garden Back Home."

Join Alice on her strange and wonderful adventures into the world of the Queen of Hearts, the Cheshire Cat, the White Rabbit, and the Hatter.

Based on the classic story by Charles Dickens

In this fully dramatized adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Michael Dick (Ebenezer Scrooge) and cast take you on an incredible journey into the supernatural as a miserly man comes to realize the true spirit of Christmas.

Featuring virtuoso performances from the entire cast, riveting sound effects, and original music, Voices in the Wind Audio Theatre’s production of A Christmas Carol is an adventure in sound and imagination.

This exciting collection of radio comedy from Waterlogg Productions features four must-listens.

1. Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Missing Countess

Scotland Yard is puzzled. A young countess has gone missing, and Sherlock Holmes is summoned. Accompanied by the redoubtable Watson, Holmes must juggle the clues. What does he see? Why does he instruct Watson to bring his wife to the circus three days later? And why does Watson keep sneezing? This original Holmes adventure is one of Holmes' more whimsical cases.

2. A Joe Bev Audio Theater Sampler, Vol. 3

This third collection of audio drama, comedy, biography, and documentary from veteran award-winning radio dramatist Joe Bevilacqua—beautifully produced with a cast of professional actors, sound effects, and music—includes We Take You Now to Grover's Mill; War of the Welles; Son of Harpo Speaks, Part 1; Homeland Security Comes to Camp Waterlogg; Akrotiri; The Unlucky Merchant; If We All Talked Like Allen Jenkins; The Village Life; Stench of the City; Huck Goes to the Moon; and If You Find an Opening, Jump In.

3. A Joe Bev Audio Theater Sampler, Vol. 4

This fourth volume includes Holy Smoke, or The Red-Suite Man; The Christmas That Almost Never Was; Sherlock Holmes' Creepy Christmas; A Pedro Christmas Sampler; A Call from the Storm; Edgarton Voss Steps Out But Not Too Far; Settling In; Uncle Dunkle's Umbrella, Tire, and Jalopy; Son of Harpo Speaks, Part 2; More Teaman and Friends; This Here Is Your Life, Sherlock Holmes; and Perils of the Tiger Barn.

4. Simon Studio Presents, Vol. 1

The Simon Studio is a training and performance theater company where actors, writers, directors, artists, and thinkers freely mix in a workshop environment. This first collection of Simon Studio Presents includes Oedipus Noir by Ralph Tyler, Dancing in the Dark by Vivian Green, The Portrait by Sarah Levine Simon, and A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare.

The battle has begun. There is no more running away or trying to hide. The survivors confront their attackers head on, both human and otherwise. As the mystery starts to unravel surrounding the man in the pin-striped suit, can our heroes stop him in time?

We're Alive: A Story of Survival, the Fourth Season, the final season, features twelve chapters packed with performances and sound effects that rival movies and prove that modern audio drama is undead and well. Join our survivors as they band together and discover that zombies are far from the worst thing in a postapocalyptic world where the rules of human decency no longer apply.

Little food, little water, little hope—who is lucky enough to say, "We're Alive"?

This highly entertaining audio dramatization of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol features a star-studded cast that includes John de Lancie, Daniel Roebuck, Jim O’Rear, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, Tiffany LaBarbera, Virginia Hey, Kyle Hebert, and Reggie Bannister. It’s eighty minutes of fun for the whole family!

Macabre Mansion Presents… The Fall of the House of Usher is an audio drama adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe's classic short story. This adaptation stays true to Poe's original vision with only minor changes in dialogue.

Driven to the edge of insanity, Roderick Usher believes unknown forces torture his every moment. In a final attempt at finding a moment's peace, he begs his childhood friend to come to his aid. Upon arriving, Roderick's friend discovers all is not what it seems in the macabre House of Usher.

This audio production features a star-studded cast that includes Kevin Sorbo as the narrator, Jim O'Rear as Roderick Usher, Bonita Friedericy as Madeline Usher, and John Billingsley as the doctor.

This collection of three highly entertaining audio dramatizations is perfect listening for the whole family! These classic tales are brought to life by a star-studded cast that includes Kevin Sorbo, John de Lancie, Daniel Roebuck, Jim O'Rear, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, Tiffany LaBarbera, Virginia Hey, Kyle Hebert, Bonita Friedericy, John Billingsley, Mandy Barnett, and Reggie Bannister.

"From the moment she burst into the downtown art scene, seventeen-year-old Addison Stone was someone to watch. Her trademark subversive street art and her violent drowning left her fans and critics craving to know more about this brilliant wild child who shone so bright and was gone too soon."

Two-time National Book Award finalist Adele Griffin offers an ingenious fictional take on celebrity biography, as told in first person interviews through the eyes of Addison Stone's parents, friends, boyfriends, mentors, critics, and more—punctuated in full color with Addison's artwork, photographs, and emails. When it comes to Addison's untimely and mysterious death, nobody escapes unscathed.

A chilling reenactment of the federal government’s anti-Communist investigations

Eric Bentley has chosen highlights from the thirty-year record of the House Un-American Activities Committee to demonstrate HUAC’s focus on artists, intellectuals, and performers. Volume 1: 1938–1948 includes the testimonies of Hallie Flanagan, Ayn Rand, Adolphe Menjou, Robert Taylor, Ronald Reagan, Gary Cooper, Bertolt Brecht and many others. Thirty Years of Treason serves as a warning for the future and creates living history from the documentary record.

A tribute to the golden age of radio from veteran producer Joe Bevilacqua and comic strip artist Donnie Pitchford, The 2nd New & Old Time Radio Collection is a series of new stories and parodies featuring beloved radio characters and shows.

A Joe Bev Audio Theater Sampler, Volume 1

This half-hour anthology represents more than forty years of storytelling by Joe Bevilacqua, a.k.a Joe Bev, the award-winning actor, writer, producer, and director. Each half-hour is beautifully produced with original a cast of professional actors, sound effects, and music. Volume 1 includes numerous audio plays by Joe Bevilacqua, J. C. Del La Torre, Ralph Tyler, William Melillo, Alan Reed, Victor Gates, and many more!

A Joe Bev Audio Theater Sampler, Volume 2

Another beautifully produced anthology by award-winning actor, writer, producer, and director Joe Bevilacqua. Volume 2 includes numerous audio plays by Joe Bevilacqua, Daws Butler, Mitchell Pearson, Bob Martin, Pedro Pablo Sacristán, Alan Reed, and many more!

The All New "Lum & Abner" Comic Strips

Lum & Abner, the classic American network radio comedy show, was created by Chester Lauck and Norris Goff and aired from 1931 to 1954. Now for the first time since 1954, veteran radio theater producer Joe Bevilacqua and comic strip artist Donnie Pitchford bring you one hundred new "Lum & Abner" audio comic strips! 

A tribute to the golden age of radio from veteran producer Joe Bevilacqua, The New Stories of Old Time Radio is a collection of radio dramas and parodies featuring beloved radio characters and shows.

The New Stories of Old Time Radio: Volume One, Set One

Produced, directed, and voiced by Joe Bevilacqua, with Lorie Kellogg, this is the first anthology of new fiction based on the beloved old-time radio characters and shows.

The New Stories of Old Time Radio: "Fibber McGee" and "Duffy's Tavern"

A follow-up to the first volume, this radio theater production features two new old-time radio stories, complete with sound effects and music.

Old Time Radio Parodies: The Best of Comedy-O-Rama Hour, Season Two

Producer Joe Bevilacqua parodies some of the most beloved old-time radio shows, including The Shadow, The Lone Ranger, The Green Hornet, and War of the Worlds.

The tower has fallen. Survivors are scattered, scrambling to find safety and each other. The rest of the world comes into view as the threats continue to evolve. Elements of strength and hope start to emerge—but at what cost?

We're Alive: Season 3 features twelve chapters packing performances and sound effects that rival movies and prove that modern audio drama is undead and well. Join our survivors as they band together, struggle to fortify a safe haven, and discover that zombies are far from the worst thing in a postapocalyptic world where the rules of human decency no longer apply.

Little food, little water, little hope—who is lucky enough to say, "We're alive"?

Abbott & Costello in the Catskills is an authentic recreation of a 1930s Borscht Belt variety show, recorded before a live audience in the Catskills.

In this New Oldtime Radio Hour, Lou Costello (Bob Greenberg) follows Bud Abbott (Joe Bevilacqua) to the Catskills when Abbott is hired as sole Master of Ceremonies of a Borscht Belt variety show. Meanwhile, guest stars George Burns and Cab Calloway miss their train, forcing Abbott to sing and dance in their place! Guest stars that do show up include Gracie Allen (Lorie Kellogg), Harpo Marx (Kenny Savoy), Ruth Waters (DeLois House), and Sophie Tucker, Last of the Red Hot Mamas (Teri Paris).

Musical numbers are performed by Ukulele Elaine & The Hurleyville Ukulele Orchestra, Banjo Steve Levine, and Leon Sandow and His Columbia Captivators: Leon Hilfstein (piano), Buddy Allen (saxophone), and Bill Margargle (drums).

Comedy sketches performed include "Lambchops" (Bud Abbott and Gracie Allen) and "Who's on First?" (Bud Abbott and Lou Costello). During the curtain call, Bud Abbott sings "Minnie the Moocher."

Rin is sure that something is wrong with her … something really bad. Something that is keeping her from feeling at home in the Forest homestead where she’s lived all her life. Something that is keeping her from trusting herself with anyone at all. When her brother Razo returns from the city for a visit, she accompanies him to the palace, hoping that she can find peace away from home. But war has come to Bayern again, and Rin is compelled to join the queen and her closest allies—magical girls Rin thinks of as the fire sisters—as they venture into the Forest toward Kel, the land where someone seems to want them all dead. 

Many beloved Bayern characters reappear in this story, but it is Rin’s own journey of discovering how to balance the good and the bad in herself that drives this compelling adventure.

When Lady Saren defies her father's command to marry the vicious Lord Khasar, she is sealed in a tower with only her serving maid, Dashti, for company. In their cramped, dark space Dashti pours her thoughts into a daily journal while pitiless solitude engulfs them. At first Dashti is optimistic: they have food aplenty, candles for light, and even a visit from Lady Saren's true love, Khan Tegus—though he can only call to them from outside their walls. But Saren is ill of mind, the outside world is changing, and their circumstances soon grow desperate. And even if they do escape, they must still face the eerie malice of Lord Khasar. To survive, Dashti and Saren forge a bond of devotion and deception that will test them to their limits. Once again Shannon Hale, author of the Newbery Honor Book Princess Academy, weaves an enchanting and original fantasy that will catch and hold listeners breathless in its spell.

It's been two years since Enna was swept up in a heart-pounding court adventure. Now, having returned to her old life in the forests of Bayern, she is growing restless. When a strange force takes possession of her brother, Liefer, she returns to the capital to seek the help of her friend Isi, Bayern's princess. But Bayern is tottering on the verge of war with neighboring Tira. 

When endowed with the terrifying gift that destroyed Liefer, Enna takes herself to war—only to embark on an epic journey of discovery and betrayal that will force her to come of age. Shannon Hale's fiery companion to her acclaimed retelling of The Goose Girl is dark, intricate, deeply passionate, and ultimately triumphant. Listeners, whether returning to Bayern or making their first visit, will find themselves enthralled.

Miri lives on a mountain where, for generations, her ancestors have quarried stone and lived a simple life. Then word comes that the king's priests have divined her small village the home of the future princess. In a year's time, the prince himself will come and choose his bride from among the girls of the village. The king's ministers set up an academy on the mountain, and every teenage girl must attend and learn how to become a princess.

Miri soon finds herself confronted with a harsh academy mistress, bitter competition among the girls, and her own conflicting desires to be chosen and win the heart of her childhood best friend. But when bandits seek out the academy to kidnap the future princess, Miri must rally the girls together and use a power unique to the mountain dwellers to save herself and her classmates.

Princess Anidori-Kiladra of Kildenree was born with a word on her tongue and a secret magic. Though she is raised in luxury, she is never quite comfortable with who she is or what she is to become. Then she is sent on a journey to marry an unknown prince. The trip is difficult, and before it is finished all her expectations are overturned. Alone, friendless, stripped of her crown and her title, Ani must learn to make her own path in the world. Along the way, she just might learn to be a princess. 

Bold in concept, stunning in execution, The Goose Girl is one of the most spectacular debut novels of recent years. Now more than four dozen actors bring it to thrilling new life in this unabridged audio edition—a recording that will delight those who already love the book, and enthrall those who have not yet discovered it.

With the premiere of two new film versions of the Snow White tale, Blackstone enters the fray with its own adult, edgy, and not altogether serious full-cast exposé of fairy-taledom. At last it can be told! Was Snow White really as pure as the driven snow? Did her allegedly wicked stepmother get a bum rap from the Grimm brothers? What went on behind the closed Dutch doors of the dwarves’ cottage? How many handsome princes does it take to screw in a light bulb? These and other burning questions may or may not be answered in this new pseudogothic audio play that Blackstone commissioned from award-winning author and audio dramatist Yuri Rasovsky. 

Season two of this action-packed audio drama plunges listeners back into a ravaged world of violence and terror.

The hope of a better life forces the survivors of the Tower out into the dissolving world around them. The consequences of past battles leave them struggling not only with each other but the remaining fragments of humanity.

This exciting audio drama is based on an immensely popular podcast that has received hundreds of positive reviews and has had over four million downloads—and counting.

For Army Reserve soldier Michael Cross, the world as he knows it ends in an instant. One minute he’s in college, and the next rioters are roaming the highway around him, breaking into cars and literally tearing people apart. This is the day the dead walk. This is the world of We’re Alive.

We’re Alive: Season 1 features twelve chapters packing performances and sound effects that rival movies and prove that modern audio drama is undead and well. Join our survivors as they band together, struggle to fortify a safe haven known as the Tower, and discover that zombies are far from the worst thing in a postapocalyptic Los Angeles where the rules of human decency no longer apply.

Little food. Little water. Little hope. Who is lucky enough to say “We’re Alive”?

What secrets lurk in the depths of Jupiter’s oceans?

In Ben Bova’s novel Jupiter, physicist Grant Archer led an expedition into Jupiter’s planet-wide ocean, attempting to study the unusual and massive creatures that call the planet their home. Unprepared for the hostile environment and crushing pressures, Grant’s team faced certain death as their ship malfunctioned and slowly sank to the planet’s depths. However, one of Jupiter’s native creatures—a city-sized leviathan—saved the doomed ship. This creature’s act convinced Grant that they were intelligent, but he lacked scientific proof. Now, several years later, Grant prepares a new expedition to prove it once and for all. The new team faces dangers from both the hostile environment and from humans who will do anything to make sure the mission is a failure—even if it means murdering the entire crew.

This is an epic of independence and devotion, of hardship and fulfillment, of a woman so strong that knowing her could change your life.

When ten-year-old Dinah Kirkham saw her father leave their Manchester home in the middle of the night, she asked when he would be back. “Soon,” he replied. But he never came back. On that night in 1829, John Kirkham laid the foundation of his daughter’s certainty that the only person Dinah could ever really trust was herself.

From that day forward, Dinah worked to support her family, remaining devoted to their welfare even in the face of despair and grinding poverty. Then one day she heard a new message; a new purpose ignited in her heart, and new life opened up before her.

In The Tempest, long considered one of Shakespeare’s most lyrical plays, Prospero, a sorcerer, and his daughter, Miranda, have been stranded on an enchanted island for twelve years. When a shipwreck—caused by the eponymous tempest—brings enemies to the island, the stage is set for comedy, romance, and reconciliation. The Tempest embodies both seemingly timeless romance and the historically specific moment in which Europe began to explore and conquer the New World. Its poetic beauty, complexity of thought, range of characters—from the spirit Ariel and the monster Caliban to the beautiful Miranda and her prince Ferdinand—and exploration of difficult questions that still haunt us today make this play wonderfully compelling.

In a not-too-distant future that is not quite ours, there has been a major scientific breakthrough, a way to open windows into the past, permitting historical researchers to view, but not participate in, the events of the past.

A small group of scientists and historians, carefully trained, spend their days viewing the human past through a machine, the TruSiteII. It takes a particular talent to search the past for moments of significance, to focus the machines and track individuals through the depths of time, but a woman named Tagiri is more than just talented—she has a knack for finding interesting lives.

But the world Tagiri lives in is a tragic place, the human race reduced to a population of less than one billion after a century of war and plague, of drought and flood and famine. There have been too many extinctions; too much land has been poisoned. The remaining people strive to renew the Earth while they search the past for the causes of their plight.

Then one day, while watching the slaughter of the Caribe tribes by the Spanish led to Hispaniola by Christopher Columbus, Tagiri makes a discovery that will change everything; she discovers that the woman she is watching is seeing her, too, as a vision sent by her gods.

Can the past be changed? Can the Earth be restored? Can it be right for a small group of people to take action that, if it succeeds, will wipe out the entire time line in which they live, even if the death of an entire planet will be averted?

And even if the answer is yes, where do they begin?

In one of the most powerful and thought-provoking novels of his remarkable career, Orson Scott Card interweaves a compelling portrait of Christopher Columbus with the story of a future scientist who believes she can alter human history from a tragedy of bloodshed and brutality to a world filled with hope and healing.

On a Halloween night, eight boys are led on an incredible journey into the past by the mysterious “spirit” Moundshroud. Riding a dark autumn wind from ancient Egypt to the land of the Celtic druids, from Mexico to a cathedral in Paris, they will witness the haunting beginnings of the holiday called Halloween.

Featuring the evocative prose and imagery of Ray Bradbury, the fine acting of the Colonial Radio Theatre players, and atmospheric music and sound effects, this story will send shivers of delight (and spine-chilling terror) through listeners young and old, long after the last candle has died in your jack-o’-lantern.

At the Tabard Inn, thirty travelers of widely varying classes and occupations are gathering to make the annual pilgrimage to Becket’s shrine at Canterbury. It is agreed that each traveler will tell four tales to help pass the time and that the host of the inn will judge the tales and reward the best storyteller with a free supper upon their return.

Thus we hear, translated into modern English, twenty-some tales, told in the voices of knight and merchant, wife and miller, squire and nun, and many more. Some are bawdy, some spiritual, some romantic, some mysterious, some chivalrous. Between the stories, the travelers converse, joke, and argue, revealing much of their individual outlooks on life as well as what life was like in late fourteenth-century England.

Man and Superman was the first drama to be broadcast on the BBC’s Third Program on October 1, 1946. To celebrate Radio 3’s fiftieth anniversary, the play was directed by Sir Peter Hall, and preserved for all time in this lush audio dramatization.

“A comedy and a philosophy,” Man and Superman is based on the Don Juan theme, and using all the elements from Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Shaw reordered them so that Don Juan becomes the quarry instead of the huntsman.

Boasting an outstanding cast including Ralph Fiennes, Juliet Stevenson, Dame Judi Dench, John Wood, Nicholas Le Prevost, and Paul Merton, this release includes an exclusive interview with director Sir Peter Hall.

One Spring morning, Mole abandons his spring cleaning and surfaces into the sunlight and warm grass of a great meadow. Rambling busily along the hedgerows he comes all at once to the edge of a river. Mole is entranced. Here on the river bank he meets the Water Rat. Mole stays with the Water Rat in his snug waterside home where the river laps at the sill of the window and here he meets Ratty's friends: Badger who lives in the Wild Wood and the incorrigible Toad of Toad Hall.

A timeless tale of waterside Britain that has been loved by generations of children and acclaimed as a classic. The story of Mole, Ratty, Badger,  and Toad and their escapades, whether messing about on the river or puttering about in Toad's shiny new car, cannot fail to enchant every listener.

Many of the original cast from Alan Bennett's acclaimed National Theatre production appear in this dramatization for BBC Radio 4, including Richard Briers as Rat, Adrian Scarborough as Mole, and Terence Rigby as Albert, with Alan Bennett as the narrator.

Fielding’s rollicking comic masterpiece sparkles with life in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatization. Abandoned child Tom is raised by the rich and benevolent squire Mr. Allworthy, much to the chagrin of Allworthy’s mean-natured nephew Blifil, and develops into a good-natured rake. But Tom’s inability to resist a pretty face lands him in hot water when he impregnates Blifil’s betrothed. When the lovely Sophia runs away to London, Tom pursues, embarking upon a series of riotous and amorous adventures. However, further trouble and the revelation of his true identity await him in London.

Chaos and confusion mount to a crescendo in a wild and fast-paced comedy of mistaken identity, one of Shakespeare's earliest plays.

Young Antipholus of Syracuse is searching the world for his identical twin brother, separated from him at birth. With him is his servant Dromio, who lost his twin brother at the same time. The pair arrive in Ephesus where, unbeknownst to them, their twins are living. 

Antipholus of Syracuse is played by David Tennant, Antipholus of Ephesus by Brendan Coyle. Alan Cox and Jason O'Mara are the two Dromios, while Niamh and Sorcha Cusack play Adriana and Luciana.

A play replete with puns and double-entendres, this is one of Shakespeare’s earliest and most lighthearted.

The young king of Navarre and three of his courtiers have vowed to lock themselves away for three years of study and fasting, and to forswear the company of women for this period. No sooner is their vow made than it is tested, however, as the princess of France and three of her ladies arrive in Navarre on a diplomatic mission. The young men fall instantly and hopelessly in love, and the tension between their vow and their passion forms the subject of this charming and sparkling early comedy.

Berowne is played by Alex Jennings and Rosaline by Emma Fielding. Samantha Bond is the princess, and Greg Wise the king of Navarre. Alan Howard plays Don Armado.

King John of England is pitted against the united powers of France, Brittany, Austria, and the papacy. Will England be destroyed by his fatal indecision?

As alliances are made, broken, and remade, the paranoid and erratic John reveals his weakness and reliance on those around him—including his powerful mother Queen Elinor and Faulconbridge, the cynical and witty bastard son of the dead King Richard I.

In this early history play, King John is played by Michael Feast, the Bastard by Michael Maloney, and Constance by Eileen Atkins.

Palamon and Arcite, cousins and bosom friends, are taken prisoner by Duke Theseus of Athens. While in captivity, they spy the beautiful Emilia. Both fall instantly in love with her, and their attachment to each other turns to hate. 

This dark-edged tragicomedy is now widely regarded as having been written by Shakespeare in collaboration with John Fletcher. Composed sometime in 1613–14, The Two Noble Kinsmen is the final play in Shakespeare's dramatic career.

Jonathan Firth plays Palamon, Nigel Cooke is Arcite, and Emilia is played by Helen Schlesinger.

Pericles, Prince of Tyre, undergoes a tyrant's fury, storm, and shipwreck. He wins love and suffers loss, but what is lost may also be found. 

With the ancient poet Gower acting as narrator, we follow the adventures of Pericles from young manhood to maturity. This strange and powerful tale of loss and recovery is the first in the group of romance comedies created by Shakespeare at the end of his dramatic career.

Sir John Gielgud plays Gower, and Nigel Terry is Pericles. Thaisa is played by Stella Gonet and Marina by Julie Cox.

The noble Titus returns victorious to Rome, bringing Tamora, queen of the Goths, as his captive. When one of Tamora's sons is condemned to die, she vows revenge, and, aided by the villainous Aaron, she exacts a terrible retribution, inaugurating a grim cycle of rape, murder, and cannibalism. This macabre, often brilliant tragedy comes from the earliest stage of Shakespeare's dramatic career.

Titus is played by David Troughton and Tamora by Harriet Walter. Paterson Joseph is Aaron, and David Burke is Marcus.

Nathaniel Hawthorne masterfully grabs the imagination of children with these timeless tales of adventure based on the incomparable Greek mythological heroes’ escapades. Children will enter a world of magic and intrigue as they face ferocious beasts, clever enchantresses, and tricky gods, alongside the greatest heroes of all time. Will Theseus escape from the maze that is guarded by the awful Minotaur? Can Jason steal the Golden Fleece from under the nose and claws of a vicious dragon? Can Odysseus outsmart the witch whose potion has turned his men into pigs? And will Cadmus rescue his sister from the bull who has kidnapped her—and who turns out to be none other than mighty Zeus himself in disguise? Find out in this enchanting retelling of the classic tales, spun by an American master.

Proteus loves Julia in Verona, Valentine loves Silvia in Milan. But when Proteus meets Silvia, he falls for her too, and the heartbroken Julia sets out in pursuit. 

This delightful and sometimes disquieting early comedy of love lost and found offers lyrical poetry, disguise, clowning, outlaws, and a most unreliable dog.

Proteus is played by Michael Maloney and Valentine by Damian Lewis. Silvia is Saskia Wickham, Julia is Lucy Robinson, and John Woodvine plays Launce.

Rome is a city divided, nobility and common people locked in mutual suspicion. The patrician Caius Marcius, later called Coriolanus, is Rome’s greatest soldier, but his proud refusal to accommodate himself to the demands of the plebeians leads to banishment and death.

A Roman history as well as tragedy, Coriolanus is a complex and subtle exploration of the themes of absolution and compromise, both in the political world and in the life of the individual.

Paul Jesson plays Coriolanus, and Marjorie Yates is Volumnia. Ewan Hooper plays Menenius

ACT I
Scene 1. The common people of Rome, the plebeians, are on the verge of rebellion due to the lack of grain; they blame the partricians—the Roman nobility—for their plight. They are especially bitter toward Caius Marcius, a patrician and a successful soldier, whom they regard as “the chief enemy to the people.” Menenius tries to persuade them that the patricians are acting in their best interests but when Marcius arrives he makes no attempt to disguise his contempt for the plebeians. When news comes that the Volsces have taken up arms against Rome, Marcius receives it with pleasure, believing their leader Tullus Aufidius to be a noble adversary. Sicinius and Brutus, tribunes appointed to represent the interests of the plebeians, discuss Marcius’ overweening pride.
Scene 2. Aufidius prepares to go to war against Rome.
Scene 3. Marcius’ mother, Volumnia, urges his wife Virgilia to glory in his warlike prowess. Valeria brings news that Marcius is about to attach the Volsces’ city of Corioles.
Scene 4. Marcius curses the fainthearted Roman soldiers and urges them on to attack Corioles. When they refuse, he enters the enemy city single-handed. When the Romans see him alone within the walls of Corioles, they rush in to assist him.
Scene 5. Marcius is contemptuous of the looting Roman soldiers and, despite his wounds, plunges back into the battle in search of Aufidius.
Scene 6. Covered from head to foot in blood, Marcius announces victory at Corioles.
Scene 7. Lartius prepares to go to the Roman camp and warns the lieutenant to guard the gates of Corioles well.
Scene 8. Marcius and Aufidius fight.
Scene 9. Although Marcius refuses all Cominius’ efforts to reward him with booty, the general insists that he accept the name Coriolanus, as tribute to his extraordinary bravery.
Scene 10. Aufidius vows to destroy Marcius by any means—honorable or otherwise.

ACT II
Scene 1. The tribunes Sicinius and Brutus try to persuade Menenius that Marcius is excessively proud, but he will have none of it, accusing them of ambition and servility. Coriolanus returns to Rome in triumph and is greeted by his wife and mother. Brutus and Sicinius fear that if Coriolanus becomes consul they will be stripped of their power.
Scene 2. The Senate has deccided to make Coriolanus consul. With great reluctance he goes, as custom requires, to solicit the citizens’ votes by displaying his battle wounds in the marketplace.
Scene 3. Despite the awareness of some plebeians that Coriolanus has little love for the common people they recognize his nobility, and choose him for consul. Once he has gone, however, their unease resurfaces and the tribunes persuade them to revoke their votes.

ACT III
Scene 1. Coriolanus walks through Rome, discussing the news that Aufidius is again preparing to take up arms. When the tribunes warn him to go no further, Coriolanus accuses them of inciting the plebeians against him and asserts that the people did not deserve free distribution of corn because they were unwilling to defend their country in war. Menenius tries to calm him, but Coriolanus continues to rage that “gentry tile, wisdom,/Cannot conclude but by the yea and no/Of general ignorance.” Finally, Brutus orders Coriolanus’ arrest and chaos ensues as the plebeians are exhorted by the tribunes to seize Coriolanus but are beaten back by the senators. When the tribunes demand Coriolanus’ death, Menenius appeases them by saying that he will bring him to the Forum to answer their grievances.
Scene 2. Coriolanus refuses to do as Menenius asks, but is eventually persuaded to go to the Forum by his mother Volumnia.
Scene 3. Brutus and Sicinius are determined that Coriolanus should be brought down by the people. When he enters the Forum, he cannot contain himself and abuses the plebeians. Sicinius and Brutus announce his banishment from Rome.

ACT IV
Scene 1. Coriolanus bids a dignified farewell to friends and family.
Scene 2. Volumnia rounds angrily on the tribunes.
Scene 3. A Roman spy tells a Volsce of Coriolanus banishment.
Scene 4. Coriolanus arrives in Antium and learns the whereabouts of Aufidius’ house.
Scene 5. Coriolanus presents himself to Aufidius telling his old enemy either to kill him on the spot, or to accept his services in war against Rome. Aufidius welcomes him delightedly.
Scene 6. The tribunes and others hear the terrible news that Coriolanus and Aufidius have invaded Roman territories.
Scene 7. Aufidius is angered by Coriolanus’ arrogance and his growing popularity with the Volsces.

ACT V
Scene 1. After Cominius has attempted unsuccessfully to plead with Coriolanus for Rome, Menenius reluctantly agrees to approach his old friend.
Scene 2. Coriolanus refuses to speak to Menenius.
Scene 3. Volumnia, Virgilia, and her little son approach Coriolanus. Volumnia describes their agony at being torn between their love for Rome and for him. She begs him to negotiate a peace that is honorable to both sides and at last Coriolanus agrees.
Scene 4. A messenger brings news that Volumnia has prevailed with Coriolanus.
Scene 5. A Senator gives the women a rapturous welcome.
Scene 6. Aufidius has returned to Corioles, enraged; he conspires with some of his followers to kill Coriolanus. When Coriolanus explains to the Volsces how he has brokered an honorable peace, Aufidius publicly accuses him of treachery. As the crowd rages against him, Coriolanus is killed by the conspirators.

CAST
Coriolanus: Paul Jesson / Menenius: Ewan Hooper / Volumnia: Marjorie Yates / Brutus: Steve Hawthorne / Sicinius: Denys Hawthorne / Aufidius: Martin Marquez / Cominius: Michael N. Harbour / Titus Lartius: Anthony Jackson / Valeria: Shirley Dixon / Virgilia: Sarah Woodward / 1st Senator: Trevor Martin / 2nd Senator: Jamie Glover / 1st Citizen: Michael Higgs / 2nd Citizen: Jonathan Tafler / Corioles Messenger: Mark Bonnar / Corioles: Philip Bretherton / 1st Soldier: Christopher Luscombe / Young Marcius: Freddie Norton

Director: Clive Brill / Composer: Dominique Le Gendre / Production coordinators: Polly Coles and Charlotte Harvey / Sound engineer: Wilfredo Acosta / Producers: Bill Shepherd and Tom Treadwell

TRACK LIST
Disc 1
Track 1: Act I, Scene i
Track 2: Act I, Scene ii
Track 3: Act I, Scene iii
Track 4: Act I, Scene iv
Track 5: Act I, Scene v
Track 6: Act I, Scene vi
Track 7: Act I, Scene vii
Track 8: Act I, Scene viii
Track 9: Act I, Scene ix
Track 10: Act I, Scene x
Track 11: Act II, Scene i

Disc 2
Track 1: Act II, Scene ii
Track 2: Act II, Scene iii
Track 3: Act III, Scene i
Track 4: Act III, Scene ii
Track 5: Act III, Scene iii

Disc 3
Track 1: Act IV, Scene i
Track 2: Act IV, Scene ii
Track 3: Act IV, Scene iii
Track 4: Act IV, Scene iv
Track 5: Act IV, Scene v
Track 6: Act IV, Scene vi
Track 7: Act IV, Scene vii
Track 8: Act V, Scene i
Track 9: Act V, Scene ii
Track 10: Act V, Scene iii
Track 11: Act V, Scene iv
Track 12: Act V, Scene v
Track 13: Act V, Scene vi

Telling his followers he is leaving the city on affairs of state, the Duke of Vienna appoints the puritanical Angelo to govern in his absence. Will Angelo prove as virtuous as he seems once power is in his hands? 

Roaming the city disguised as a friar, the duke looks on as Angelo’s lust for the virtuous Isabella sweeps him into the corruption he has so sternly condemned in others. 

The duke’s manipulation at last produces a happy ending for this dark comedy, with its brilliant exploration of the themes of justice and mercy.

Roger Allam plays the duke and Simon Russell Beale is Angelo. Isabella is played by Stella Gonet.

Young Claudio has fallen for the lovely heiress Hero, who also loves him. Their path to the altar looks smooth, until the evil Don John intervenes. 

All ends happily, thanks to his incompetent assassins and the lucky discoveries of the bungling constable Dogberry. Central to the play, one of Shakespeare's best-loved comedies, are Beatrice and Benedick, masters of wit and sworn foes to marriage—until a plot is hatched to bring them together.

Beatrice is played by Saskia Reeves, while Samuel West plays Benedick. Paul Jesson is Don Pedro, Jason O'Mara is Claudio, and Abigail Docherty is Hero. Dogberry is played by Bryan Pringle.

King Leontes of Sicilia is seized by sudden and terrible jealousy of his wife Hermione, whom he accuses of adultery. He believes the child Hermione is bearing was fathered by his friend Polixenes, and when the baby girl is born he orders her to be taken to some wild place and left to die. Though Hermione's child escapes death, Leontes' cruelty has terrible consequences. Loss paves the way for reunion, and life and hope are born out of desolation and despair.

One of the late romances in Shakespeare's canon, this complex work is at times tragic, at times humorous, but always entertaining and enlightening.

Sinead Cusack plays Hermione, and Ciaran Hinda plays Leontes. Eileen Atkins is Paulina and Paul Jesson is Polixenes. Time the Chorus is played by Sir John Gielgud.

King Henry is married to Catherine of Aragon, but he has been smitten by the charms of the queen's maid of honor, Anne Boleyn, and is tempted to divorce his dignified and noble wife. 

Meanwhile, the lords of England resent the influence of Henry's trusted advisor, Cardinal Wolsey, who is gradually drawing power into his own hands. As Catherine and Wolsey suffer their tragic falls, new figures rise to fill their places, but they, too, will be brought low by the inexorable sweep of time and fortune. 

This colorful history play, possibly written in collaboration with John Fletcher, comes from the very end of Shakespeare's dramatic career.

Paul Jesson plays Henry VIII, and Jane Lapotaire plays Queen Catherine. Timothy West is Cardinal Wolsey.

Blackstone Audio presents an eclectic mix of stories, plays and sketches dedicated to the thinking paranoiac. Gore, sex, horror, literature and edifying morals—what more could you want from an audiobook?

This collection includes "In a Grove," upon which Akira Kurosawa based his classic film, Rashomon; an adult fairy tale by the author of Winnie-the-Pooh; the real story (honest!) behind Edgar Rice Burroughs's novel The Moon Maid; and cautionary and scary tales from Arabian Nights, Dostoevsky, Kafka, Mark Twain, and others.

The only complete trilogy to survive from ancient Greek theater is presented here in this sound recording of all three plays: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Eumenides.

In the Oresteia, Aeschylus dramatizes the myth of the curse on the royal house of Argos. Action begins when King Agamemnon returns victorious from the Trojan War but is treacherously slain by his wife. It ends with the trial of their son, Orestes, who slew his mother to avenge her treachery—a trial with the goddess Athena as judge, the god Apollo as defense attorney, and avenging demons called The Furies as prosecutors. The results of the trial change the nature of divine and human justice forever.

As was the custom in antiquity, this trilogy was accompanied by a satyr play called Proteus, a broad farce on a related theme, namely, the encounter between Agamemnon’s brother, Menelaus, with the slippery Old Man of the Sea. This play is lost, but Blackstone has included verses from The Odyssey, which inspired it.

The insidious Fleet Street barber slit his first throat in an 1846 "penny dreadful," one of those gaudy serialized novels that gleefully offered thrills and gore to sensation-hungry Victorians. TitledThe String of Pearls, it told of Sweeney Todd, whose shop stood next to St. Dunstan's Church, just a few blocks from the Royal Courts of Justice. On this site, he robbed and murdered hundreds of customers. To dispose of their remains, he carried them to an underground bakery of one Mrs. Lovett, whose pie shop was a few blocks away. She ground the cadavers into stuffing for her meat pies, the favorite midday repast of the lawyers who worked nearby and who got their shaves from Sweeney Todd. The man you lunched with yesterday couldbeyour lunch today!

Before the serial's final chapters even hit the stands, the first stage version, pirated from the already published installments, was packing them in at a London theater. Since then there have been numerous stage, literary, and screen versions of the story, most notably the hit Sondheim musical. Blackstone Audio has commissioned this, the first audio version of the tale, from the Audie® award-winning Hollywood Theater of the Ear (The Sherlock Holmes Theatre,The Oresteia). With tongue in cheek, writer/producer/director Yuri Rasovsky has gone all the way back to the original penny dreadful to imbue an old string of pearls with new luster—and fresh blood.

Peggy is a Torch, able to see the fire burning in each person’s heart. She can follow the paths of each person’s future, and know each person’s most intimate secrets. From the moment of Alvin Maker’s birth, when the Unmaker first strove to kill him, she has protected him. Now they are married, and Peggy is a part of Alvin’s heart as well as his life. But Alvin’s destiny has taken them on separate journeys. Alvin has gone north into New England, where knacks are considered witchcraft and their use is punished with death. Peggy has been drawn south, to the British Crown Colonies and the court of King Arthur Stuart in exile. For she has seen a terrible future bloom in the heartfires of every person in America, a future of war and destruction. One slender path exists that leads through the bloodshed, and it is Peggy’s quest to set the world on the path to peace.

Mark Antony, one of the three rulers of the Roman world, has become the thrall of the fascinating Cleopatra.

Affairs of state call Mark Antony to Rome, but the attractions of the queen of Egypt prove impossible to resist. From one of history’s greatest love stories Shakespeare builds this magnificent tragedy of the clash between love and duty.

Cleopatra is played by Estelle Kohler, Mark Antony by Ciaran Hinds, Ian Hughes is Octavius Caesar, and David Burke is Domitius Enobarbus.

ACT I
Scene 1. Mark Antony, together with Octavius Caesar and Lepidus, is one of the three Triumvirs who rule the Roman Empire. But Antony is slavishly in love with Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, and shows no interest in affairs of state.
Scene 2. Members of Cleopatra’s entourage amuse themselves consulting a soothsayer. Antony learns that his wife Fulvia, who has been in rebellion against Caesar, is dead. Forces opposed to the Triumvirs are having considerable success and he finally realizes that he must leave Egypt.
Scene 3. Antony tells Cleopatra that he intends to return to Rome.
Scene 4. Caesar is angered by Antony’s behavior and will not be mollified by Lepidus. News floods in of their enemies’ growing strength.
Scene 5. Cleopatra languishes in Antony’s absence.

ACT II
Scene 1. Pompey, the Triumvirs’ principal enemy, is disturbed to hear of Antony’s return to Rome. Menas remains optimistic that the insurrection of Antony’s brother and wife has soured his relations with Caesar, but Pompey foresees that divisions will be forgotten in the face of an external enemy.
Scene 2. A tense meeting between Caesar and Antony is smoothed over by Lepidus and Agrippa, who suggest that Antony marry Caesar’s sister Octavia. Enobarbus, Antony’s trusted lieutenant, remembers Antony’s first meeting with Cleopatra; he is sure that Antony will never leave her.
Scene 3. A soothsayer tells Antony that he cannot shine with Caesar is near. He decides to return to Egypt.
Scene 4. Lepidus, Agrippa, and Maecenas prepare to go to war.
Scene 5. When a messenger tells Cleopatra of Antony’s marriage to Octavia, she flies into a violent rage.
Scene 6. Pompey invites the Triumvirs to a banquet aboard his galley. Enobarbus predicts Antony’s infidelity to Octavia and that her sighs will “blow the fire up in Caesar.”
Scene 7. At the banquet, Menas suggests that Pompey could become master of the world if he were to order the murder of his guests. Pompey rejects the idea, but regrets that Menas has not acted on his own initiative.

ACT II
Scene 1. In Syria, Ventidius enters triumphant with the body of the son of the Parthian king. Ventidius plays down his achievement, wary of losing Antony’s favor by raising himself up too high.
Scene 2. Enobarbus and Agrippa ridicule Lepidus’ devotion to Antony and Caesar. Octavia bids Caesar a sad farewell as she leaves for Athens with Antony.
Scene 3. Cleopatra questions a messenger about Octavia and concludes that, being “dull of tongue, and dwarfish,” she is no threat.
Scene 4. Antony is furious that Caesar has spoken slightingly of him and, contrary to their agreement, has gone to war against Pompey. Octavia will return to Rome in an attempt to reconcile her brother and husband.
Scene 5. Caesar has imprisoned Lepidus for allegedly communicating with Pompey.
Scene 6. Caesar rails against Antony’s division of the Eastern provinces among Cleopatra and her children. Octavia seeks to defend her husband, but Caesar informs her that he is now in Egypt with Cleopatra, who is levying forces for war.
Scene 7. Despite strong advice to the contrary, Antony insists on a naval battle rather than fighting on land where he has the advantage.
Scene 8. Caesar gives the order to meet Antony at sea.
Scene 9. Antony positions his squadrons within view of Caesar’s battle line.
Scene 10. Enobarbus, Scarus, and Canidius watch appalled as Cleopatra’s ships flee, followed by Antony. Canidius decides to join forces with Caesar, whilst Enobarbus, against his better judgement, remains with Antony.
Scene 11. Back in Alexandria, Antony is riven with shame. Cleopatra claims she had not thought he would follow when she retreated. He replies, “thou knew’st too well/My heart was to thy rudder tied by the strings.”
Scene 12. Caesar rejects Antony’s terms for surrender, but shows clemency to Cleopatra on condition that she betray her lover.
Scene 13. Antony rages against Caesar, challenging him to single combat. Only Cleopatra’s assurance of her love finally calms him. Believing that Antony has lost his reason, Enobarbus resolves to leave him.

ACT IV
Scene 1. Caesar rejects Antony’s challenge and gives the order to do battle the next mornign.
Scene 2. Enobarbus reproaches Antony for his melancholy words.
Scene 3. Full of trepidation, soldiers gather for the battle.
Scene 4. Antony prepares for battle.
Scene 5. Antony hears that Enobarbus has gone.
Scene 6. When Enobarbus learns that Antony has sent his treasure after him, he is struck to the heart that he has deserted a man of such nobility.
Scene 7. The battle goes in Antony’s favor.
Scene 8. Antony, jubilant with success, meets Cleopatra after the first day’s fighting.
Scene 9. Enobarbus dies heartbroken.
Scene 10. Scarus tells Antony that Caesar will attack by land and sea.
Scene 11. Caesar gives orders for the battle.
Scene 12. Antony loses the battle when the Egyptians desert him. He rejects Cleopatra bitterly.
Scene 13. Cleopatra, frightened by Antony’s rage, hides in her monument and sends word that she has killed herself.
Scene 14. When he hears of Cleopatra’s alleged death, Antony falls on his sword.
Scene 15. Antony is carried to Cleopatra and dies.

ACT V
Scene 1. When Caesar hears of Antony’s death, he dispatches an ambassador to Cleopatra.
Scene 2. Dolabella tells Cleopatra that Caesar intends to lead her in triumph through Rome. Caesar treats Cleopatra with courtesy, though he warns her against attempting suidice. Horrified at the thought of being exhibited in front of the Roman rabble, Cleopatra announces that she will follow Antony’s example and die. A country fellow brings Cleopatra a basket containing poisonous snakes. Crowned and robed as a queen, she clasps the snakes to her bosom and dies. Caesar, now sole ruler of the Roman world, orders that Cleopatra he buried with her Antony.

CAST
Mark Antony: Ciaran Hinds / Cleopatra: Estelle Kohler / Domitius Enobarbus: David Burke / Octavius Caesar: Ian Hughes / Charmian: Eve Matheson / Iras: Emma Gregory / Lepidus: Trevor Martin / Pompey: Charles Simpson / Octavia: Tracy-Ann Oberman / Eros: John McAndrew / Philo: Steve Hodson / Soothsayer: Arthur Cox / Menecrates: Michael N. Harbour / Menas: Jonathan Tafler / Scarus: Mark Bonnar / Diomedes: Will Keen / Cleopatra’s Messenger: Gary Bakewell / Alexas: Richard Durden / Mardian: Christopher Luscombe / Other parts played by David Bannerman, Sean Baker, Philip Bretherton, Anthony Jackson, Martin Marquez, Nicholas Murchie, Alisdair Simpson, and Stephen Thorne

Director: Clive Brill / Composer: Dominique Le Gendre / Production Coordinators: Polly Coles and Charlotte Harvey / Sound Engineer: Wilfredo Acosta / Producers: Bill Shepherd and Tom Treadwell

TRACK LIST
Disc 1
Track 1: Act I, Scene i
Track 2: Act I, Scene ii
Track 3: Act I, Scene iii
Track 4: Act I, Scene iv
Track 5: Act I, Scene v
Track 6: Act II, Scene i
Track 7: Act II, Scene ii
Track 8: Act II, Scene iii
Track 9: Act II, Scene iv
Track 10: Act II, Scene v
Track 11: Act II, Scene vi

Disc 2
Track 1: Act II, Scene vii
Track 2: Act III, Scene i
Track 3: Act III, Scene ii
Track 4: Act III, Scene iii
Track 5: Act III, Scene iv
Track 6: Act III, Scene v
Track 7: Act III, Scene vi
Track 8: Act III, Scene vii
Track 9: Act III, Scene viii
Track 10: Act III, Scene ix
Track 11: Act III, Scene x
Track 12: Act III, Scene xi
Track 13: Act III, Scene xii
Track 14: Act III, Scene xiii
Track 15: Act IV, Scene i
Track 16: Act IV, Scene ii
Track 17: Act IV, Scene iii
Track 18: Act IV, Scene iv
Track 19: Act IV, Scene v
Track 20: Act IV, Scene vi

Disc 3
Track 1: Act IV, Scene vii
Track 2: Act IV, Scene viii
Track 3: Act IV, Scene ix
Track 4: Act IV, Scene x
Track 5: Act IV, Scene xi
Track 6: Act IV, Scene xii
Track 7: Act IV, Scene xiii
Track 8: Act IV, Scene xiv
Track 9: Act IV, Scene xv
Track 10: Act V, Scene i
Track 11: Act V, Scene ii

The young and virtuous physician’s daughter Helena desperately loves Count Bertram, but he regards her as beneath his notice.

When Helena cures the king of France of a mortal illness, he rewards her with Bertram’s hand, but before their marriage can be consummated, the count flees. To win her husband back again, Helena forms a daring and resourceful plan.

A plot to unmask the strutting soldier Parolles makes up another strand in this sometimes disturbing comedy of deception and disguise.

ACT I
Scene 1. Bertram, the young Count of Rossillion, is leaving home to take his place at the court of the King of France, who is gravely ill. Bertram bids farewell to his mother the widowed Countess, her friend the old lord Lafew and the young and virtuous Helena, daugther of a famous doctor now deceased, who lives as a dependent in the old Countess’ household. Helena is passionately in love with Bertram, though without hope because he is so far above her in birth. Parolles, a blustering soldier who has attached himself to Bertram, is also going to the French court and Helena determines to follow. She has learned the mysteries of medicine from her father; if she can cure the King, she may win Bertram’s heart.
Scene 2. The ailing King tells of war between the Florentines and Sienese; he will give permission to any young gentleman of France who wishes to go to Italy in search of glory. Bertram arrives and the King greets him warmly.
Scene 3. The Countess gently forces Helena to admit her love for Bertram and reveal her plan to attempt the King’s cure. The old lady kindly offers her support.

ACT II
Scene 1. Lafew announces the arrival at court of a young woman who claims to be able to heal the King. The King is deeply skeptical, but Helena persuades him to allow her to make the attempt. Should she succeed, the King is to grant her the husband of her choice.
Scene 2. The Countess’ fool Lavatch is to be sent to the court. He claims that he has a response that will serve him in all social situations, but the Countess exposes his folly.
Scene 3. Helena has restored the King to joyful health. He offers her the hand in marriage of any of the young lords at court, but when she chooses Bertram he recoils in horror. Angrily, the King commands Bertram to wed Helena instantly. The marriage takes place, but Bertram vows that he will never sleep with his bride and determines to steal away to the Italian wars at once.
Scene 4. Helena receives a letter from Bertram telling her that he has been called away and ordering her to take leave of the King.
Scene 5. Lafew warns Bertram that Parolles is a hollow sham. Helena enters and Bertram dismisses her curtly, instructing her to return to the Countess.

ACT III
Scene 1. The Duke of Florence prepares to welcome the young Frenchmen who come to fight on his behalf.
Scene 2. Helena has received a letter from Bertram: until she can get the ring from his finger, which he has vowed never to remove, and produce a child that she has conceived by him, she will never be able to call him husband.
Scene 3. The Duke of Florence, impressed by Bertram’s military promise, has given him an important command.
Scene 4. The Countess has received a letter from Helena telling her that she has gone on a pilgrimage to atone for her sin in aspiring to Bertram’s love and freeing him from his responsibility for her. The Countess bitterly deplores her son’s arrogance and blindness.
Scene 5. Helena has come to Florence where she meets a kindly widow and her beautiful daughter, Diana. The widow tells her that Bertram has fought heroically in the war but also that he has been attempting to seduce Diana.
Scene 6. The French soldiers hatch a plot to convince Bertram of Parolles’ cowardliness; pretending to be enemy soldiers, they will capture him, then see if he is prepared to betray his friends.
Scene 7. Helena, too, is setting a plot. Diana is to pretend to yield to Bertram’s suit on condition that he give her his ring. She is then to agree to an assignation in the dark, at which Helena will take her place.

ACT IV
Scene 1. Parolles is “captured” according to plan. He immediately offers to betray the Florentines and is blindfolded and taken off for interrogation.
Scene 2. Bertram woos Diana, who will yield only if he will giver her his ring. Bertram is reluctant but such is his passion for the girl that he agrees. Diana tells him to come to her chamber at midnight.
Scene 3. News has reached Bertram that Helena is dead; his friends condemn his hard-heartedness. The plotters interrogate Parolles. He begs them to spare his life and gives up the secrets of the army, slandering various Frenchmen, including Bertram, as he does so. At length his blindfold is removed and the plot revealed: Parolles’ true character has been exposed.
Scene 4. Helena’s subterfuge has succeeded and she is now pregnant with Bertram’s child, though he believes it was Diana whose bed he shared. She resolves to return to France, and Diana and the widow agree to accompany her.
Scene 5. In Rossillion, Lafew tells the old Countess of the exposure of Parolles. Bertram is expected home at any moment and news arrives that the King of France is also on his way to the Countess’ house.

ACT V
Scene 1. Meeting a French gentleman on the road, Helena gives him a letter to be delivered to the King of France.
Scene 2. Parolles humbles himself before Lafew, confessing that the old Lord was the first to see through him.
Scene 3. The King forgives Bertram for his cruel treatment of Helena, which the young Count seems to repent. The King recognizes a ring on Bertram’s finger as one which he hemself had previously given to Helena; Bertram denies this, saying that he had it from a woman in Florence. The french gentleman delivers Helena’s letter: this relates that Bertram has seduced Diana, then abandoned her—Diana herself is present and wishes to appeal to the King. Diana is summoned and Bertram dismisses her as a common prostitute, though admitting he has slept with her and that it was she who gave him the ring the King has recognized; Diana meanwhile, insists that she is still a virgin. The King does not know what to believe until, to the astonishment of all, Helena appears. She has the ring from Bertram’s finger and is pregnant with his child; the “impossible” conditions have been met and Bertram vows to love his wife “ever, ever dearly.”

CAST
The King of France: Clive Swift / Helena: Emily Woof / Bertram: Sam West / Countess: Maggie Steed / Parolles: Edward De Souza / Lafew: Denys Hawthorne / Lavatch: Aden Gillett / Interpreter: Nicholas Murchie / First French Lord: John Warnaby / Second French Lord: Michael Higgs / Widow: Jenny Howe / Diana: Rebecca Saire / Duke of Florence: Gavin Muir / Mariana: Charlotte Harvey / Messenger: Scott Cherry

Director: Clive Brill / Composer: Dominique Le Gendre / Production coordinators: Polly Coles and Charlotte Harvey / Sound engineer: Wilfredo Acosta / Producers: Bill Shepherd and Tom Treadwell

TRACK LIST
Disc 1
Track 1: Act I, Scene i
Track 2: Act I, Scene ii
Track 3: Act I, Scene iii
Track 4: Act II, Scene i
Track 5: Act II Scene ii
Track 6: Act II, Scene iii
Track 7: Act II, Scene iv

Disc 2
Track 1: Act II, Scene v
Track 2: Act III, Scene i
Track 3: Act III, Scene ii
Track 4: Act III, Scene iii
Track 5: Act III, Scene iv
Track 6: Act III, Scene v
Track 7: Act III, Scene vi
Track 8: Act III, Scene vii
Track 9: Act IV, Scene i
Track 10: Act IV, Scene ii
Track 11: Act IV, Scene iii

Disc 3
Track 1: Act IV, Scene iv
Track 2: Act IV, Scene v
Track 3: Act V, Scene i
Track 4: Act V, Scene ii
Track 5: Act V, Scene iii

Brilliantly manipulative and entirely amoral, the hero-villain Richard is one of Shakespeare's greatest roles.

The Yorkists have emerged victorious from the civil wars and Edward IV wears the English crown. But Edward's misshapen brother Richard harbors kingly ambitions and will stop at nothing to achieve the throne. In a fatal battle on Bosworth Field, Richard meets the ghosts of all whom he has murdered and the Earl of Richmond, the future King Henry VII.

Richard III is played by David Troughton. Saskia Wickham plays Lady Anne, Margaret Robertson plays Queen Margaret, and Philip Voss is Buckingham.

This controversial play follows the declining fortunes of a man of extravagant contradictions.

The fabulously rich Timon believes all his friends to be as open-hearted and generous as himself. When his wealth suddenly evaporates, however, he discovers the truth and his altruism turns to a bitter hatred of mankind. Stirred up by the cynical Apemantus, Timon retreats to the woods where he plots the destruction of Athens, the city that had formerly seemed to embody everything pleasurable and civilized. The cosmic scope of his hatred is communicated in a series of powerful and disturbing dramatic tableaux.

Alan Howard is Timon and Norman Rodway is Apemantus. Damian Lewis play Alcibiades.

This pastoral is one of Shakespeare’s best-loved comedies, due to its delightful heroine, the wise, witty, and virtuous Rosalind, who complicates her love life by disguising herself as a young man.

ACT I
Scene 1. Orlando, the youngest son of Sir Rowland de Boys, has been kept “rustically at home” by his older brother, Oliver; he has been denied his inheritance and any formal education. When Orlando demands his birthright, the brothers come to blows. Charles the Wrestler describes how the old duke has been banished by his younger brother Frederick and has gone to live in the Forest of Arden. His daughter Rosalind has stayed at court with Celia, Frederick’s daughter. Hearing that Charles and Orlando are to wrestle the following day, Oliver lies to Charles, claiming that Orlando intends, if necessary, to resort to foul play in order to win the fight.

Scene 2. The courtier Le Beau urges Rosalind and Celia to watch the wrestling. They try to persuade the youthful Orlando not to fight, but he is determined to go ahead and succeeds in beating Charles. Frederick congratulates the victor but is displeased to learn of his parentage. Le Beau suggest that, the duke being so unpredictable, Orlando would be wise to leave the court. Orlando, who has fallen for the “heavenly Rosalind,” follows his advice.

Scene 3. Rosalind is telling Celia of her love for Orlando when Duke Frederick enters and banishes her from the court. Celia insists on accompanying her cousin and they decide to travel in disguise: Rosalind as a youth called Ganymede and Celia as his sister, Aliena. Their sole companion is to be the court fool Touchstone.

ACT II
Scene 1. Duke Senior extols the joys of the hard, rustic life. A lord describes the melancholy Jaques’ distress at the brutality of the hunt.

Scene 2. Duke Frederick has learnt of the flight of Celia and Rosalind.

Scene 3. Orlando is warned by Adam, his father’s aged servant, that Oliver has resolved to murder him. Adam urges Orlando to escape, offering him his savings and his service.

Scene 4. Rosalind, Celia, and Touchstone are now in the Forest of Arden, where they overhear Silvius telling the shepherd Corin of his unrequited love for the scornful Phebe. The tired travelers ask for help and decide to buy Corin’s cottage and sheep.

Scene 5. Jaques, Amiens, and others sing together.

Scene 6. When Adam becomes faint with hunger and exhaustion, Orlando promises to find him food.

Scene 7. Jaques eulogizes Touchstone’s wisdom. As the exiled courtiers prepare to eat, Orlando enters brandishing his sword and demanding food. The Duke disarms him by graciously inviting him to eat. Whilst Orlando goes back to fetch Adam, Jaques ponders on the seven stages of life, from infancy to senility. The duke is delighted to learn that Orlando is the son of “the good Sir Rowland.”

ACT III
Scene 1. Duke Frederick commands Oliver to find his missing brother and “bring him dead or living.”

Scene 2. Orlando wanders through the forest hanging verses in praise of Rosalind upon the trees. Rosalind derides the clumsy style until she realizes that their author is Orlando. When he arrives with Jaques, Rosalind (dressed as the boy Ganymede) draws him out on the subject of his love. She promises to cure him of his passion if he comes to her daily and woos her as if she were Rosalind.

Scene 3. Touchstone proposes to Audrey. Jaques intervenes, persuading them against being married by the ill-educated priest Sir Oliver Mar-Text.

Scene 4. Rosalind is devastated that Orlando has not come to woo her as he promised.

Scene 5. Silvius woos Phebe ardently, but she rebuffs his advances. When Rosalind accuses the shepherdess of pride Phebe is instantly infatuated with her/Ganymede. She decides to write to Ganymede and Silvius agrees to deliver the letter.

ACT IV
Scene 1. Rosalind is scornful of Jaques’ melancholy, insisting “I had rather have a fool to make me merry than experience to make me sad.” When Orlando arrives an hour late, she tells him that this is no sign of true love. Once alone with Celia again, she confesses the depth of her passion.

Scene 2. Jaques gives the exiled lords a hero’s welcome when they return from the hunt with a deer.

Scene 3. Silvius delivers Phebe’s stern letter to Rosalind who pretends not to believe that a woman could have written such words. Oliver enters carrying a bloody cloth and recounts how Orlando saved his life by killing the hungry lioness poised to attack him. The brothers are now reconciled and Oliver has been welcomed by the exiled duke. Rosalind swoons at the sight of the blood.

ACT V
Scene 1. Touchstone dismisses William, a rival for Audrey’s affections.

Scene 2. Oliver and Celia are in love and plan to marry the following day. When Orlando tells Rosalind “how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man’s eyes,” she claims to know a magician who will unite him with his beloved.

Scene 3. Touchstone and Audrey are to marry the next day.

Scene 4. Rosalind reveals her identity to Orlando and her father, as Hymen, the god of marriage, looks on. All four couples are now to be married. Jaques de Boys, Sir Rowland’s second son, arrives with news of Duke Frederick’s conversion; having met a hermit in the forest, he has resolved to restore the dukedom to his brother and to retire from the world. As the celebrations continue, Jaques the courtier decides to join Frederick in his religious life.

CAST
Rosalind: Niamh Cusack / Orlando: Stephen Mangan / Jaques: Gerard Murphy / Touchstone: Clarence Smith / Celia: Victoria Hamilton / Silvius: Ian Pepperell / Phebe: Carolyn Backhouse / Duke Senior: Philip Voss / Duke Frederick: Hugh Ross / Oliver: Jonathan Tafler / Audrey: Sarah-Jane Holm / Adam: John Hollis / Amiens: Chook Sibtain / Le Beau: Sean Baker / Corin: Raymond Bowers / Charles the Wrestler: Matthew Morgan / Lord: Mark Lambert / Jaques de Boys: Duncan Bell

Director: Clive Bell / Composer: Dominique Le Gendre / Production coordinators: Polly Coles and Charlotte Harvey / Sound Engineer: Wilfredo Acosta / Producers: Bill Shepherd and Tom Treadwell

TRACK LIST
Disc 1
Track 1: Act I, Scene i
Track 2: Act I, Scene ii
Track 3: Act I, Scene iii
Track 4: Act II, Scene i
Track 5: Act II, Scene ii
Track 6: Act II, Scene iii
Track 7: Act II, Scene iv
Track 8: Act II, Scene v
Track 9: Act II, Scene vi
Track 10: Act II, Scene vii
Track 11: Act III, Scene i
Track 12: Act III, Scene ii (up to line 240)

Disc 2
Track 1: Act III, Scene ii (from line 241)
Track 2: Act III, Scene iii
Track 3: Act III, Scene iv
Track 4: Act III, Scene v
Track 5: Act IV, Scene i
Track 6: Act IV, Scene ii
Track 7: Act IV, Scene iii
Track 8: Act V, Scene i
Track 9: Act V, Scene ii
Track 10: Act V, Scene iii
Track 11: Act V, Scene iv
Track 12: Epilogue

The monstrous power of one of Shakespeare's most memorable characters, Richard Plantagenet, emerges in Henry VI, Part 3, a portent of things to come.

The Yorkists have been temporarily victorious and the Duke of York has assumed the throne, but the Lancastrians, led by Queen Margaret, counter-attack. As the fortunes of war shift, both the innocent and the guilty are swept up in the maelstrom. And increasingly dominant amid the chaos is the sinister figure of the crook-backed Richard, Duke of Gloucester.

David Tennant plays Henry VI, and Kelly Hunter plays Queen Margaret. Clive Merrison is the Duke of York, Stephen Boxer is Edward IV, and John Bowe is Warwick. Richard of Gloucester is played by David Troughton.

This shattering drama of isolation and loss is one of the greatest tragedies in world literature.

King Lear of Britain has three daughters: the hard-hearted Goneril and Regan, and the good and gentle Cordelia. He determines to divide his kingdom between them, giving the largest share to she who can say she loves him the best. Lear’s tragic lack of judgement and self-knowledge is paralleled by the blindness of the loyal Gloucester who is persuaded to reject his virtuous son Edgar in favor of the villainous Edmund.

Lear is played by Trevor Peacock and Gloucester by Clive Merrison. Penny Downie is Goneril, Samantha Bond is Regan, and Julia Ford is Cordelia. Edgar is played by David Tennant, Edmund by Gerard Murphy, and the Fool by John Rogan.

This haunting drama of vengeance and forgiveness crowns the group of tragicomic romances that Shakespeare composed at the end of his career. Sometimes read as his farewell to the stage, the play contains some of Shakespeare's most lyrical verse.

Prospero, wise Duke of Milan, has been deposed by Antonio, his wicked brother, and exiled with his daughter Miranda to a mysterious island. But Prospero possesses supernatural powers. Aided by the spirit Ariel, Prospero uses his magical art to bring his enemies under his control. 

Prospero is played by Bob Peck, Ariel by Adrian Lester, Jennifer Ehle is Miranda, Simon Russell Beale is Antonio, Jamie Glover is Ferdinand, and Richard McCabe plays Caliban.

Rife with intrigue and treachery, this history play depicts the onset of the fifteenth-century Wars of the Roses between the houses of Lancaster and York.

Young King Henry VI has married the beautiful Margaret of Anjou, but the new queen is ruthless and ambitious. Supported by the powerful Duke of Suffolk, Margaret plots the overthrow of her enemies, chief among them the Duke of Gloucester. But the Duke of York also aspires to the crown, and the common people, led by Jack Cade, are in rebellion. To the despair of the mild young king, England descends into civil war.

David Tennant plays Henry VI, and Kelly Hunter plays Queen Margaret. Norman Rodway is the Duke of Gloucester, Isla Blair the Duchess of Gloucester, and Clive Merrison plays the Duke of York.

This great tragedy confronts the mystery at the heart of evil and contains some of Shakespeare's most magnificent dramatic verse.

Othello, a Moorish general in the service of Venice, has married Desdemona, beautiful daughter of a Venetian senator. But Iago, Othello's malignant ensign, is determined to destroy their happiness. Cunningly bending Othello to his own purposes, Iago persuades the Moor that Desdemona is unfaithful to him. Tormented in a hell of jealousy, Othello moves inexorably toward the destruction of his innocent wife and himself. 

Othello is played by Don Warrington, David Threlfall is Iago, Anne-Marie Duff is Desdemona, and Jasper Britton plays Cassio. 

It is said that Queen Elizabeth gave Shakespeare two weeks to write this play that showcases her favorite comedic character, Sir John Falstaff. 

The dissolute Falstaff plans to seduce Mistress Ford and Mistress Page, two "Merry Wives of Windsor," thereby gaining access to their husbands' wealth. The two women have the old rogue's measure, however, and Falstaff's plots lead only to his own humiliation. But the merry wives themselves fall prey to plotting as their plans to prevent Mistress Page's daughter Anne from marrying the young man she loves are frustrated in their turn.

Dinsdale Landen is Falstaff. Sylvestra Le Touzel plays Mistress Ford and Penny Downie is Mistress Page. Nicholas Woodeson is Ford, Phillip Jackson is Page, and Clive Swift plays Justice Shallow.

The all-conquering King Henry V is dead and the throne is occupied by his infant son, Henry VI. The good Duke Humphrey of Gloucester has been appointed protector, but a struggle for power soon develops between the young king’s Lancastrian relatives and the powerful house of York under Richard Plantagenet. Meanwhile the French, led by Joan of Arc, the maid of Orleans, threaten to win back the territories lost to Henry V.

Love and wit conquer all in Shakespeare's sparkling comedy of self-delusion and disguise.

Padua holds many suitors for the hand of fair Bianca, but Bianca may not be married until her spinster sister, Kate, is wed. Could any man be rash enough to take on Kate? 

The witty adventurer Petruchio undertakes the task. While he sets about transforming Kate from foul-tempered termagant to loving wife, young Lucentio and his clever servant, Tranio, plot to win Bianca. 

Frances Barber and Roger Allam are Kate and Petruchio. Lucentio is played by Alan Cox.

Lust poses as love and ambition as patriotism in this dark and brilliant play depicting the heroic action of the Trojan War.

Troy is besieged by the invading Greeks, but the young Trojan prince Troilus can think only of his love for Cressida. Her uncle Pandarus brings the two together, but after only one night news comes that Cressida must be sent to the enemy camp. There, as Troilus looks on, she yields to the wooing of the Greek Diomedes. The tragic story is undercut by the commentary of Thersites, who provides a cynical chorus.

Henry V is a study of kingship, patriotism, and heroic determination tempered by tender comedy as Henry courts Katherine, princess of France. 

Henry, the noble and courageous young king of England, decides to invade France, believing he has a rightful claim to the throne. At Agincourt he leads his army into battle against the powerful French forces and, against all the odds, wins a famous victory.

Henry is played by Jamie Glover, Brian Cox is the Chorus, and the Hostess is played by Elizabeth Spriggs.

At the heart of this tragic history is one of Shakespeare's most noble characters, the statesman Brutus, who is caught in a devastating conflict between private affection and public duty.

Julius Caesar has become the most powerful man in the Rome. Does his power now threaten the very existence of the Republic itself? A conspiracy is hatched, one that will have fatal consequences not only for Caesar and the conspirators but for the future history of the ancient world. 

Brutus is played by John Bowe and Mark Antony by Adrian Lester. Michael Feast is Caesar.

Prince Hal parts from his past to fulfill his royal destiny, in this essential conclusion to Henry IV, Part 1.

Rebellion still simmers in England and King Henry's health is failing. Prince Hal has proved his courage but the king still fears that his son's pleasure-loving nature will bring the realm to ruin. Meanwhile, Falstaff and his ribald companions waste the nights in revelry, anticipating the moment when Hal will ascend the throne. Falstaff is in Gloucestershire when news arrives that the king has died. Has the dissolute old knight's hour come at last?

Hal is played by Jamie Glover and King Henry by Julian Glover. Richard Griffiths is Falstaff.

Sinister supernatural forces are at work in this fast-paced tragedy of guilt and retribution, in which the power of human beings to control their own destiny is called into question.

The brave warrior Macbeth allows himself to be persuaded by Lady Macbeth, his wife, to slay good King Duncan and seize the throne of Scotland for himself. Macbeth achieves his ambition, but one murder proves not to be enough as he desperately attempts to eliminate all who might threaten his ill-gotten power. Descending into paranoia, Macbeth achieves his ambition but ravages his soul.

Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are played by Hugh Ross and Harriet Walter.

Shakespeare’s most imaginative and merry play is set in an enchanted wood amidst fairies and sprites.

When Oberon, King of the Fairies, uses his magic upon four runaway lovers in a midsummer wood outside Athens, chaos ensues. Who really loves whom? Meanwhile, a band of well-meaning but bungling local actors have their rehearsal sabotaged by the mischievous Puck, who bewitches their leader, Bottom, and Titania, the Fairy Queen. The result is a lively and anarchic comedy which can only be resolved by an elaborate disentangling of spells.

Hermia is played by Amanda Root, Oberon by David Harewood, and Bottom by Roy Hudd.

ACT I
Scene 1. In Athens, preparations are underway for the wedding of Duke Theseus to Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons. An angry father, Egeus, comes to the ducal palace and accuses Lysander of bewitching his daughter Hermia, even though she is already betrothed to Demetrius. Hermia confesses her love for Lysander, and Theseus tells her that according to the law, she must either die or enter a nunnery if she refuses to marry the man chosen by her father. He gives her until the new moon to decide. Hermia and Lysander decide to run away; they agree to meet the following night in a wood outside the city. They tell Helena, Hermia’s childhood friend, of their plan; she, however, is in love with Demetrius, who has rejected her for Hermia, and she hopes to regain his favor by telling him of the lovers’ intentions.
Scene 2. A group of Athenian workmen, “rude mechanicals,” are preparing an entertainment to be performed at the Duke’s wedding. They have chosen “the most lamentable comedy and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby.”

ACT II
Scene 1. In a wood near Athens, Oberon and Titania, King and Queen of the Fairies, argue over a changeling boy. Titania has adopted him, but Oberon wants him for an attendant. When Titania refuses to give in, Oberon summons his servant, the mischievous sprite Puck. Oberon instructs him to find an enchanted flower, the juice of which, when laid on a sleeper’s eyelid, will cause him or her to fall in love with the first creature seen on awaking. He thus hopes to force her into giving him the boy. While Puck is gone, Oberon observes Helena and Demetrius, who have followed Hermia and Lysander into the wood. Demetrius rejects Helena peremptorily. When Puck returns with the flower, Oberon tells him to lay some of its juice on the eye of the “disdainful youth,” whom he will know by his Athenian clothes.
Scene 2. Oberon squeezes the juice of the magic flower on Titania’s eyelids. Lysander and Helena fall asleep nearby. Puck mistakes Lysander for Demetrius and drops the juice on his eye. Demetrius and Helena arrive and Lysander awakes, promptly falling in love with Helena. Hermia wakes to find herself left alone.

ACT III
Scene 1. Near where Titania lies sleeping, the “rude mechanicals” rehearse their play. Puck, who has been watching the rehearsal with amusement, places the head of an ass on Bottom’s shoulders. His fellow actors run away terrified. Titania awakes and falls instantly in love with Bottom.
Scene 2. Oberon is delighted at what has happened to Titania, but angered when he realizes that the sprite has mistaken Lysander for Demetrius. To right the error, he lays juice on the lids of the sleeping Demetrius. When the young man wakes, the first person he sees is Helena, and he duly falls in love with her. Helena, now beloved of both the youths, is certain they are teasing her cruelly. Hermia is distraught when Lysander rejects her and accuses Helena of stealing her beloved. Lysander and Demetrius leave to settle their quarrel over Helena by combat, but Oberon orders Puck to send them to sleep. Puck then lays an antidote to the love juice on Lysander’s eyelids. Meanwhile Helena and Hermia fall asleep beside their lovers.

ACT IV
Scene 1. Oberon sees Titania sleeping beside Bottom. He pities her and, on undoing the spell, they are reconciled. Puck removes Bottom’s ass’ head. Thesus and Hippolyta are hunting in the forest with Egeus. They come upon the sleeping lovers. Lysander explains that he and Hermia were fleeing to evade the Athenian law. Demetrius gives up his claim to Hermia and declares his love for Helena. Theseus then announces that the young couples will be married along with Hippolyta and himself. After they have retruned to Athens, Bottom awakes.
Scene 2. Quince, Starveling, Flute, and Snug are anxiously wondering where Bottom is when he returns with the news that their entertainment has been selected for the Duke’s wedding.

ACT V
Scene 1. After the wedding, Theseus, Hippolyta, and the young couples assemble for the entertainment. Bottom and his friends present the tragedy of Pyramus and Thisby, to the great amusement of the spectators. When all have retired for the night, the fairies enter and dance together through the palace, to bless the bridal beds. Only Puck remains, asking the audience to believe that they “have but slumb’red here/While these visions did appear.”

CAST LIST
Bottom: Roy Hudd / Hermia: Amanda Root / Helena: Saskia Wickham / Lysander: Rupert Penry-Jones / Demetrius: Clarence Smith / Puck: Richard McCabe / Oberon: David Harewood / Titania: Adjoa Andoh / Quince: Richard Cordery / Snout: John Hollis / Flute: Alex Lowe / Starveling: Sidney Livingstone / Snug: John Dallimore / Theseus: Paul Shelley / Hippolyta: Sophie Heyman / Fairy: Aicha Kossoko

Director: Clive Brill / Composer: Dominique Le Gendre / Production coordinators: Polly Coles and Charlotte Harvey / Sound engineer: Wilfredo Acosta / Producers: Bill Shepherd and Tom Treadwell

TRACK LIST
Disc 1
Track 1: Act I, Scene i
Track 2: Act I, Scene ii
Track 3: Act II, Scene i
Track 4: Act II, Scene ii
Track 5: Act III, Scene i
Track 6: Act III, Scene ii
(up to line 121)

Disc 2
Track 1: Act III, Scene ii
(from line 122)
Track 2: Act IV, Scene i
Track 3: Act IV, Scene ii
Track 4: Act V, Scene i

This strange, dark romance includes two songs composed by Shakespeare that are amongst the most beautiful in the English language.

Imogen, the daughter of King Cymbeline, is persecuted by her wicked stepmother, the Queen, and by Cloten, the Queen’s doltish son. Disguised as a boy, she sets out to find her husband, the banished Posthumus. On her journey, she unwittingly meets her two brothers, stolen from the court as infants. Posthumus, meanwhile, has been convinced by the villainous Iachimo that Imogen is unchaste and agrees to a test of her faithfulness.

Sophie Thompson is Imogen, and Ben Porter is Posthumus. Cymbeline is played by Jack Shepherd while Suzanne Bertish is the Queen. Stephen Mangan plays Cloten, and Ron Cook plays Iachimo.

ACT I
Scene 1. Imogen, daughter of King Cymbeline of Britain, has angered father by marrying Posthumus. Cymbeline himself reared the orphaned Posthumus, his own two sons having been abducted in infancy. The wicked queen (whose son Cloten was Cymbeline’s preferred match for Imogen) pretends kindness to the young couple. Before Posthumus leaves for exile in Rome, Imogen gives him a ring, receiving in return a bracelet.
Scene 2. Cloten’s attendants ridicule him.
Scene 3. Pisanio, Posthumus’ servant, tells Imogen of his master’s departure.
Scene 4. Posthumus meets Iachimo in Rome. When Posthumus extols Imogen’s virtue, Iachimo wagers him ten thousand ducats to his diamond ring that he can persuade her to commit adultery. Posthumus accepts the wager.
Scene 5. The doctor, Cornelius, is suspicious when the queen gathers poisonous plants. He reveals privately that what she believes to be a fatal poison is in fact a sleeping draught. The queen tries unsuccessfully to turn Pisanio against Posthumus and gives him the poison, claiming that it is a life-saving remedy. Pisanio spurns the queen, disbelieving her.
Scene 6. Iachimo comes to see Imogen, bringing a letter of introduction from Posthumus. Realizing that he can only win the wager by resorting to subterfuge, he claims that Posthumus has been unfaithful, suggesting that she avenge herself by becoming his lover. When she reacts with revulsion, he assures her that he was merely testing her devotion. She then agrees to his request to leave a trunk of valuables in her chamber overnight for safekeeping.

ACT II
Scene 1. Cloten wants to meet Iachimo.
Scene 2. While Imogen sleeps, Iachimo creeps from the trunk. He carefully notes details of her chamber and person and then eases Posthumus’s bracelet from her arm.
Scene 3. When Cloten tries to woo Imogen she dismisses him impatiently. She asks Pisanio to find her missing bracelet.
Scene 4. Iachimo uses his observations of Imogen, and her bracelet, to convince Posthumus that he has slept with her. Posthumus vows revenge.

ACT III
Scene 1. Cymbeline refuses to pay a tribute to Caesar, and Rome declares war on Britain. We learn that Cymbeline had fond associations with Rome and Caesar in his youth.
Scene 2. Posthumus writes to Pisanio ordering to kill Imogen. Pisanio refuses to believe her unfaithful. In order to help Pisanio in his task, Posthumus tells Imogen to meet him at Milford Haven.
Scene 3. Belarius, unjustly banished by Cymbeline, abducted his sons Guiderius and Arviragus, and lives with them in a remote Welsh cave. The young men, unaware of their provenance, are frustrated by their isolated life.
Scene 4. As Imogen and Pisanio approach Milford he shows her Posthumus’ letter. She begs him “Do his bidding strike!” Pisanio convinces her that she should report her death to Posthumus; she meanwhile must dress as a man and seek the protection of Lucius, a noble Roman. Before they part, Pisanio gives Imogen the Queen’s potion, as a remedy for sickness.
Scene 5. Imogen is missing from the court. The Queen privately hopes that she is either dead or exiled and that “She being down,/I have the placing of the British crown.” Believing Imogen well on her way to Rome, Pisanio tells Cloten that she has gone to Milford and gives him a suit of Posthumus’ clothes. Cloten plots his revenge, intending to kill Posthumus and ravish Imogen.
Scene 6. When Imogen arrives exhausted at Belarius’s cave, she is welcomed with food and shelter. She calls herself Fidele.
Scene 7. Romans discuss the war with Britain (War conference).

ACT IV
Scene 1. Cloten draws near to Milford, gloating about the horrible punishments he will deal out.
Scene 2. Pleading sickness, Imogen remains in the cave whilst her hosts go hunting. She takes Pisanio’s drug. Belarius sees Cloten and fears that they have been discovered. Guiderius beheads Cloten. The brothers find Imogen/Fidele apparently dead, and lay her tenderly in grave. When Imogen awakens, she sees Cloten’s decapitated body in Posthumus’s clothes and assumes her husband has been killed. Lucius comes upon Imogen/Fidele and takes her under his protection.
Scene 3. Cymbeline wonders where Imogen and Cloten have gone, and questions Pisanio. Pisanio denies knowledge and swears loyalty to the king.
Scene 4. Belarius wants to flee the area, but his adopted sons are eager to fight the Romans.

ACT V
Scene 1. Posthumus, having returned to Britain with the Romans is devastated to learn from Pisanio of Imogen’s death. He dresses as a peasant and resolves to fight for his country.
Scene 2. Iachimo reveals his guilt at having wronged Imogen.
Scene 3. Posthumus describes how three men (Belarius, Guiderius, and Arvirigus) heroically saved the flagging Briton Army. Posthumus, again disguised as a Roman, is arrested.
Scene 4. Posthumus willingly embraces imprisonment. He awakens from a vision to find a written prophecy that both his and Britain’s miseries will end.
Scene 5. Cymbeline knights Belarius, Arvirigus, and Guiderius, but regrets the disappearance of an outstandingly valiant unknown soldier (who is in fact Posthumus). The queen has died, confessing her misdeeds. The prisoners Fidele/Imogen, Posthumus, Lucius, and Iachimo, are brought to Cymbeline. Lucius begs clemency for Fidele/Imogen and Cymbeline agrees. Fidele/Imogen demands that Iachimo explain where he found the diamond ring he wears; this he does. Heartbroken, Posthumus steps forward, thrusting the disguised Imogen away when she tries to intervene. Pisanio comes to her aid and she accuses him of poisoning her. Cornelius, however, interposes in his defense. Thus, Belarius, Guiderius, and Arvirigus, who are amazed at Fidele’s apparent return from the dead, understand all. Guiderius admits to the slaying of Cloten and is arrested by Cymbeline. Belarius then reveals both his own and his adoptive son’s true identities. Posthumus forgives Iachimo freely. Amidst the general rejoicing, Cymbeline announces that he will pay tribute to Caesar, thus restoring peace between Britain and Rome.

CAST
Cymbeline: Jack Shepherd / Imogen: Sophie Thompson / Posthumus: Ben Porter / Belarius: Stephen Moore / Iachimo: Ron Cook / Cloten: Stephen Mangan / Queen: Suzanne Bertish / Arviragus: Ian Hughes / Guiderius: Will Keen / Pisanio: James Greene / Philario: Charlie Woods / Soothsayer: Max Bonamy / Senator: Rupert Mason / Lady: Annabel Capper / Messenger: James Reynard / Jailer: Julius Barnett

Director: Clive Brill / Composer: Dominique Le Gendre / Production coordinators: Polly Coles and Charlotte Harvey / Sound Engineer: Wilfredo Acosta / Producers: Bill Shepherd and Tom Treadwell

TRACK LIST
Disc 1
Track 1: Act I, Scene i
Track 2: Act I, Scene ii
Track 3: Act I, Scene iii
Track 4: Act I, Scene iv
Track 5: Act I, Scene v
Track 6: Act I, Scene vi
Track 7: Act II, Scene i
Track 8: Act II, Scene ii
Track 9: Act II, Scene iii
Track 10: Act II, Scene iv

Disc 2
Track 1: Act II, Scene v
Track 2: Act III, Scene i
Track 3: Act III, Scene ii
Track 4: Act III, Scene iii
Track 5: Act III, Scene iv
Track 6: Act III, Scene v
Track 7: Act III, Scene vi
Track 8: Act III, Scene vii
Track 9: Act IV, Scene i
Track 10: Act IV, Scene ii

Disc 3
Track 1: Act IV, Scene iii
Track 2: Act IV, Scene iv
Track 3: Act V, Scene i
Track 4: Act V, Scene ii
Track 5: Act V, Scene iii
Track 6: Act V, Scene iv
Track 7: Act V, Scene v

Shakespeare’s most famous play is one of the greatest stories in the literature of the world.

Distressed by his father’s death and his mother’s over-hasty remarriage, Hamlet, prince of Denmark is faced by a specter from beyond the grave bearing a grim message of murder and revenge. The young prince is driven to the edge of madness by his struggle to understand the situation he finds himself in and to do his duty. Many others, including Hamlet’s beloved, the innocent Ophelia, are swept up in his tragedy.

Hamlet is played by Simon Russell Beale. Imogen Stubbs plays Ophelia, Jane Lapotaire is Gertrude, and Bob Peck is Claudius. Polonius is played by Norman Rodway.

ACT I
Scene 1. The ghost of Old Hamlet, King of Denmark, has appeared to officers guarding the castle of Elsinore. When the apparition is witnessed by Horatio, friend of the Dead King’s son, he fears that it portends ill. He decides to tell young Hamlet, hoping that the ghost might reveal to him the cause of its restlessness.
Scene 2. The dead king’s brother, Claudius, has assumed the crown and married the widowed Queen Gertrude. He dispatches emissaries to Norway where the king’s nephew Fortinbras is threatening Denmark with war. The King and Queen urge young Hamlet to cast off his dark mood. Once alone, the prince vents his violent grief at his father’s death and outrage at his mother’s “incestuous” remarriage. Wen Horatio tells Hamlet about the ghost, he too suspects foul play.
Scene 3. Laertes warns his sister, Ophelia, not to take seriously Hamlet’s attentions because, being a prince, he is not free to make his own choices in matters of love.
Scene 4. Hamlet and Horatio meet on the battlements. The ghost appears and beckons to Hamlet to follow him.
Scene 5. The ghost describes to Hamlet how it was murdered by Claudius. It urges him to revenge the crime.

ACT II
Scene 1. Polonius, a garrulous counsellor and father to Ophelia and Laertes, instructs Reynaldo to investigate the kind of life Laertes is leading in Paris. Ophelia describes Hamlet’s bizarre behavior to Polonius who attributes this to her recent rejection of him.
Scene 2. The King and Queen ask Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, old friends of Hamlet, to discover the cause of the prince’s erratic behavior. The King of Norway has stopped Fortinbras’ preparations for war against Denmark. Polonius takes Hamlet’s scathing and capricious wit as proof of his insanity. Hamlet greets Rosencrantz and Guildenstern warmly, but becomes suspicious of their motives. He is, however, pleased to hear that a company of players has arrived at Elsinore. Once alone, he berates himself for his failure to undertake his revenge. He plans to have the players enact King Hamlet’s murder and to observe Claudius’ reaction as a way of ascertaining his guilt.

Act III
Scene 1. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have failed to uncover the reason for Hamlet’s behavior. Hamlet shocks Ophelia with his crude and bitter contempt for women and marriage. Their conversation is overheard by Claudius, who recognizes that it is not thwarted love that is responsible for Hamlet’s dangerous instability. He resolves to send him on a diplomatic mission to England to get him away from the court. Polonius suggests that Gertrude should persuade Hamlet to confide in her; he himself will eavesdrop on their conversation.
Scene 2. Hamlet tells Horatio to watch Claudius during the play for signs of guilt. As a murder identical to that of King Hamlet is enacted, Claudius rises in fright and calls for lights, thus ending the performance. Hamlet is summoned to his mother’s closet and vows to “speak daggers to her, but use none.”
Scene 3. Claudius orders Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to accompany Hamlet to England. Once alone he expresses agony at his dreadful crime. Hamlet comes upon him trying to pray, but desists from killing him on the grounds that, were Claudius to die in prayer, his soul might go to heaven rather than hell.
Scene 4. Hamlet harangues Gertrude so violently that she cries out for help. Polonius responds from his hiding place and Hamlet, believing him to be Claudius, stabs through the arras, killing him. He then continues his furious indictment of Gertrude, until the ghost enters, reminding him of his mission. Having implored his mother to repent, he drags away Polonius’ body.

ACT IV
Scene 1. Gertrude is now convinced of Hamlet’s madness and Claudius is determined that he should leave for England immediately.
Scene 2. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern beg Hamlet to reveal the whereabouts of Polonius’ corpse.
Scene 3. Hamlet speaks wildly, but when Claudius tells him he must set out for England immediately, he agrees. Left alone, Claudius confesses that he has plotted Hamlet’s death.
Scene 4. Fortinbras is marching with his army to do battle over an unimportant piece of land. Hamlet compares his own wrongs, still unavenged, and resolves to take action at last.
Scene 5. Ophelia, deranged with grief at her father’s death, comes to Claudius and Gertrude, singing distractedly. Laertes arrives, hot to avenge Polonius’ murder.
Scene 6. Horatio receives a letter from Hamlet saying that he has been captured by pirates on his way to England and that they have returned him to Denmark.
Scene 7. Claudius tells Laertes that he cannot punish Hamlet for Polonius’ murder because he is loved both by Gertrude and the people of Denmark. He persuades Laertes to wait until an “accidental” death can be arranged for Hamlet; a fencing match will be organized and the tip of Laertes’ sword will be dipped in poison. Gertrude announces that Ophelia has drowned herself.

ACT V
Scene 1. A grave is being dug. Hamlet and Horatio arrive, and Hamlet jests with the gravedigger. The grave is Ophelia’s, and when her funeral procession arrives, Laertes jumps into the grave to bid his sister a last farewell, Hamlet follows, claiming that his love for Ophelia was greater than her brother’s; they fight. Claudius urges Laertes to bide his time patiently.
Scene 2. Hamlet tells Horatio how, en route for England, he discovered Claudius’ plot to have him killed. Having forged an order for the deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, he escaped. Osric, a courtier, tells Hamlet of the proposed fencing match with Laertes; Hamlet agrees to take part. The match begins. Gertrude drinks poisoned wine meant by Claudius for Hamlet, should Laertes’ sword fail to kill him. Hamlet is wounded by the poisoned sword which, in the course of the scuffle, comes to his own hand; he wounds Laertes with it. Dying, Laertes confesses the plot. Hamlet stabs Claudius fatally with the poisoned sword, then dies, naming Fortinbras as his successor. Fortinbras arrives, claims the crown of Denmark, and orders a soldier’s funeral for Hamlet.

CAST
Hamlet: Simon Russell Beale / Ophelia: Imogen Stubbs / Gertrude: Jane Lapotaire / Claudius: Bob Peck / Polonius: Norman Rodway / Ghost, Gravedigger: Paul Jesson / Horatio: Alan Cox / Laertes: Damian Lewis / Rosencrantz: John McAndrew / Guildenstern: Clarence Smith / Player King: Clifford Rose / Fortinbras: Chook Sibtain / Marcellus, Osric: Nicholas Rowe / Cornelius, Reynaldo: Alex Boyd-Williams / Prologue, Lucianus, Doctor: Nicholas Murchie / Player Queen: Steven O’Neill / Bernardo: Alan Westaway / Francisco: Alex McSweeney / Voltemand: Nick Monu

Director: Clive Brill / Composer: Dominique Le Gendre / Production coordinators: Polly Coles and Charlotte Harvey / Sound engineer: Wilfredo Acosta / Producers: Bill Shepherd and Tom Treadwell

TRACK LIST
Disc 1
Track 1: Act I, Scene i
Track 2: Act I, Scene ii
Track 3: Act I, Scene iii
Track 4: Act I, Scene iv
Track 5: Act I, Scene v
Track 6: Act II, Scene i
Track 7: Act II, Scene ii
(up to line 85)

Disc 2
Track 1: Act II, Scene ii
(from line 85)
Track 2: Act III, Scene i
Track 3: Act III, Scene ii
Track 4: Act III, Scene iii
Track 5: Act III, Scene iv

Disc 3
Track 1: Act IV, Scene i
Track 2: Act IV, Scene ii
Track 3: Act IV, Scene iii
Track 4: Act IV, Scene iv
Track 5: Act IV, Scene v
Track 6: Act IV, Scene vi
Track 7: Act IV, Scene vii
Track 8: Act V, Scene i
Track 9: Act V, Scene ii

Shakespeare’s finest verse play is also his first portrait of the psychology of power.

The sensitive and poetic Richard II is undoubtedly the rightful king of England, but he is unscrupulous and weak. When his cousin Henry Bolingbroke returns from banishment and mounts a challenge to his authority, Richard’s right to the throne proves of little help to him. Richard is forced to abdicate, but as his power is stripped away, he gains dignity and self-awareness, and he meets his death heroically. Meanwhile Bolingbroke’s seizure of the crown has caused resentment among the nobles of England.

Rupert Graves is Richard II, and Julian Glover is Bolingbroke. John Wood plays John of Gaunt.

Shakespeare’s most sophisticated comedy is a riotous tale of hopelessly unrequited passions and mistaken identity.

Duke Orsino is in love with the noblewoman Olivia. She, however, has fallen for his servant Cesario, who is actually Viola, a woman disguised as a man, who loves Orsino: confusion is rife. Meanwhile, Olivia’s arrogant steward Malvolio is cruelly tricked by her uncle Sir Toby Belch, his friend Sir Andrew Aguecheek, and the maidservant Maria into believing his mistress loves him.

Niamh Cusack is Viola, Jonathan Firth is Orsino, Amanda Root plays Olivia, Dinsdale Landen plays Sir Toby Belch, and Julian Glover is Malvolio.

This play introduces Shakespeare’s greatest comedic character, the dissolute knight Sir John Falstaff.

While King Henry’s England is threatened by rebellion, the king’s scapegrace son Hal haunts the taverns of London, his companions a crew of rogues and thieves let by Falstaff. The earl of Northumberland and his fiery son Hotspur scheme to overthrow the crown. Can Hal be brought to a sense of duty as Prince of Wales? Or will the influence of Falstaff prove too strong? The issue is decided when Hal, Hotspur, and Falstaff come together at the climactic battle of Shrewsbury.

Hal is played by Jamie Glover and King Henry by Julian Glover. Richard Griffiths is Falstaff.

ACT I
Scene 1. King Henry’s plans to lead a crusade to the Holy Land are frustrated when he hears that an English army under Edmund Mortimer has been defeated by the Welsh chieftan Owen Glendower. Henry reveals that Harry Percy, known as Hotspur, has defeated the Scottish Earl of Douglas in battle. Thinking of his son, unruly Hal, the King envies the valiant Hotspur’s father, the Lord Northumberland. The King’s council is to convene on the following Wednesday when Hotspur will be made to account for his giving the king only one of his hostages.
Scene 2. Ned Poins tries to persuade Prince Hal and his friend, the debauched knight Sir John Falstaff, to take part in a robbery at Gadshill. The Prince reuses but is finally persuaded by Poins, who has a secret scheme to expose Falstaff for the coward he is. Once alone, Hal muses on his unprincely behavior, comparing himself to the sun, who allows himself to be covered by the clouds, only to appear more brilliant when he emerges from the “ugly mists.”
Scene 3. King Henry angrily dismisses Worcester when the Earl reminds him that it was his family that first put Henry on the throne. Hotspur claims that his irritation at the arrival of a foppish courtier on the battlefield has been misinterpreted as a refusal to give up prisoners to the king. However, he will only agree to surrender them if the King ransoms Mortimer, Hotspur’s brother-in-law. Henry is incensed: Mortimer, he says, is a traitor, having married his captor Owen Glendower’s daughter. Unmoved by Hotspur’s impassioned defense of Mortimer, he warns, “Send us your prisoners, or you will hear of it.” Northumberland restrains the enraged Hotspur. Worcester reminds them that the King’s hostility to Mortimer stems from the fact that he, not Henry, is Richard II’s rightful heir. When Hotspur finally calms down, his uncles suggests that they raise a rebellion against the King, relying on the support of Glendower, Douglas, Mortimer, and the Archbishop of York.

ACT II
Scene 1. Gadshill hears that there are wealthy travelers on the road: an ideal prey for their planned robbery.
Scene 2. Falstaff and his cronies rob the travelers, and are, in turn, assaulted by Hal and Poins, who are in disguise.
Scene 3. Hotspur’s wife Kate begs him to tell her why he is so abstracted, but he warns her not to question him further.
Scene 4. Prince Hal is relaxing in an Eastcheap tavern when Falstaff arrives and recounts how he fought off eleven men. When Hal reveals that the two assailants were, in fact, Poins and himself, Falstaff is unabashed, claiming that he recognized Hal all along, and would not have killed the heir apparent. A messenger arrives from the King, summoning the Prince to court in the morning: the rebels are rising. Hal is concerned at the prospect of being horribly “chid” by his father the king but Falstaff persuades him to practice an answer. A Sheriff arrives to arrest Falstaff for his part in the robbery, but Hal lies to protect his friend. The stolen money, he says, will be paid back with interest.

ACT III
Scene 1. The rebels gather at Glendower’s castle in Wales. Hotspur and Glendower quarrel over the division of the Kingdom, though Hotspur is finally pacified. The wives of Hotspur and Mortimer enter and the rebels seem at amity.
Scene 2. The king upbraids Hal for his unprincely behavior. Hal begs forgiveness, promising that he will match the brave Hotspur in valor.
Scene 3. Falstaff claims that he has had his pockets picked in the tavern, but the Hostess hotly denies it. Hal arrives and banters with Falstaff, before setting off for the war.

ACT IV
Scene 1. In their camp near Shrewsbury, the rebels receive word that Northumberland is sick and cannot join the campaign. Worcester is concerned that his absence will be construed as a sign of weakness. Hotspur, however, remains optimistic even when they learn that the King is on his way and that Glendower cannot be with them for fourteen days.
Scene 2. Falstaff bemoans the ragged company of which he is captain.
Scene 3. Hotspur is eager to join battle at once but Worcester and Sir Richard Vernon advise caution. Sir Walter Blunt arrives, asking the rebels to state their grievances and promising pardon in return. Hotspur rails against the King’s betrayal of the Percy family and refuses to give an answer until the following morning.
Scene 4. The Archbishop of York expresses his anxiety that, with the absence of both Northumberland and Glendower, all might not go well for the rebels in the forthcoming battle.

ACT V
Scene 1. Henry will pardon the rebels if they disband their forces. Hal offers to meet Hotspur in single combat.
Scene 2. Worcester believes that, even if they agree to the terms, the King will always remain suspicious of them. He therefore conceals Henry’s “liberal and kind offer” from Hotspur, thus spurring him into battle.
Scene 3. Hotspur kills Blunt. Falstaff jokes with Hal, but the Prince is in no mood for jesting.
Scene 4. Prince Hal acquits himself bravely in the battle, saving his father from Douglas and killing Hotspur. Falstaff claims that it was he who finished Hotspur and is unabashed when Hal shows him to be a liar.
Scene 5. Henry condemns Worcester and Vernon to death. Hal frees Douglas for his courage. The King describes how he will defeat the remaining rebels.

CAST
King Henry IV: Julian Glover / Prince Hal: Jamie Glover / Falstaff: Richard Griffiths / Hotspur: Alan Cox / Mistress Quickly: Elizabeth Spriggs / Northumberland: Peter Jeffrey / Worcester: Anthony Jackson / Glendower: Ian Hughes / Douglas: Mark Bonnar / Poins: Charles Simpson / Lady Percy: Jane Slavin / York: Michael N. Harbour / Vernon: Nicholas Murchie / Westmoreland: Philip Whitechurch / Bardolph: Sidney Livingstone / Blunt: David King / Other parts played by Peter England, Rachel Lumberg, John McAndrew, Chris Pavlo, Paul Reynolds, Justin Salinger, and Alisdair Simpson

Director: Clive Brill / Composer: Dominique Le Gendre / Production coordinators: Polly Coles and Charlotte Harvey / Sound engineer: Wilfredo Acosta / Producers: Bill Shepherd and Tom Treadwell

TRACK LIST
Disc 1
Track 1: Act I, Scene i
Track 2: Act I, Scene ii
Track 3: Act I, Scene iii
|Track 4: Act II, Scene i
Track 5: Act II, Scene ii
Track 6: Act II, scene iii

Disc 2
Track 1: Act II, Scene iv
Track 2: Act III, Scene i
Track 3: Act III, Scene ii

Disc 3
Track 1: Act II, Scene iii
Track 2: Act IV, Scene i
Track 3: Act IV, Scene ii
Track 4: Act IV, Scene iii
Track 5: Act IV, Scene iv
Track 6: Act V, Scene i
Track 7: Act V, Scene ii
Track 8: Act V, Scene iii
Track 9: Act V, Scene iv
Track 10: Act V, Scene v

In the world’s most celebrated and lyrical love story, the sublime devotion of two young lovers transcends their earthly fate.

The noble Veronese houses of Montague and Capulet are locked in a bitter feud. When Romeo (a Montague) and Juliet (a Capulet) fall in love, they are swept up in a series of violent events and cruel twists of fortune. Despite the passion and innocence of their love, they fall victim to the enmity between their families, and their story ends in tragedy.

In this production, Romeo is played by Joseph Fiennes and Juliet by Maria Miles. Elizabeth Spriggs is the Nurse.

In Shakespeare’s most controversial play, the opposing values of justice and mercy must be resolved. Antonio promises money to help his friend Bassanio woo Portia. He borrows the sum needed from the cruel Shylock, but there will be a dreadful penalty if the loan is not repaid.

The golden world of Portia’s Belmont calls forth some of Shakespeare’s most lyrical love poetry. But the dark shadow of Shylock is never far from the heart of this brilliant comedy as it moves toward its courtroom climax.

Portia is played by Hadyn Gwynne and Shylock by Trevor Peacock. Julian Rhind-Tutt is Bassanio, and Bill Nighy is Antonio.