Shakespeare in Love

Romeo and Ethel the Pirate’s Daughter. Along the way, he falls in love body and soul with a young woman named Viola. The problem for Will is that he is a poor—not to mention married—actor and playwright, while Viola is an heiress. The problem for Viola is that she is being married off to a Lord she cannot stand, while she longs to be an actor. But the laws of the land are firm. Women cannot appear on the stage, and a father can marry his daughter off to the man of his choosing. Through the deepening love he feels for Viola, Will’s play changes from a bad comedy to his tragic masterpiece Romeo and Juliet. 

Shakespeare in Love is a fanciful and entirely fictional imagining of Shakespeare’s life. The play does not contain the level of sexuality or the actual nudity that the film has, although sexuality is still an integral part of Will and Viola’s relationship. The play also contains a brothel scene where a young actor is sent off to lose his virginity to a prostitute, and occasional profanity. 

The Angus Bowmer Theatre is outfitted with an elevator that takes patrons to either Row E or Row K.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is committed to accessibility. We recognize the needs of persons with disabilities and strive to make our facilities and productions accessible to all. OSF offers a variety of accommodations, outlined here.

El pobre de Will está paralizado por su nueva obra – una confusión medio cocida titulada Romeo y Ethel, Hija del Pirata – y sufre de un caso colosal de bloqueo de escritor. Su público le exige una comedia, pero él anhela algo más…. más… pues, ni él puede adivinar la palabra. Entonces, conoce a Viola, una belleza inteligente que ama al trabajo de él y que le prende la chispa creativa. Pero Viola tiene un secreto y Romeo resulta ser todo menos una fiesta de carcajadas. Christopher Liam Moore es el director de esta adaptación del guión que sacó un Academy Award, un banquete ingenioso y romántico con música. 

Idoneidad Shakespeare Enamorado es una imaginación ficticia de la vida de Shakespeare. La obra no tiene el nivel de sexualidad ni la verdadera desnudez de la película, aunque la sexualidad es una parte integral de la conexión entre Will y Viola. La obra también presenta una escena de burdel en que se manda a un joven actor a perderse la virginidad con una prostituta, y la profanidad ocasional.

Like most moviegoers in late 1998 and early 1999, I was utterly enchanted by the film Shakespeare in Love. As a theatre maker, I was initially skeptical to see this imagined love story of William Shakespeare’s early years as a young playwright. Despite the pedigree of the artists involved, I found it hard to imagine how it could possibly work. Then I saw the film. I was swept away by the breathless wit of Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman’s script, the exquisitely detailed design, the thrilling acting and direction and the trembling love story at its center. 

I greeted the idea of a theatrical adaptation of the film with another bout ofskepticism. How could anyone translate this gorgeous film for the stage? Then I read Lee Hall’s script. I was floored by how much he honored the film and yet created something utterly new. 

Shakespeare in Love is, in many ways, a love letter to theatre and the people who make it and to the people who love and support it. It belongs on a stage with an audience swimming in the energy and unpredictability of a live performance. 

I love this play because its heart is enormous and generous. It encompasses both divinely clever Shakespeare-insider wordplay and cheap puns. It has swashbuckling swordfights and a passionately delicate romance. It examines the gender politics of a decidedly sexist world whose monarch is one of the most powerful women in history. It honors and holds these contradictions in one container. It is wonderfully Shakespearean in its celebration of the turbulent complexity of human beings. 

For me, perhaps the most revelatory accomplishment of this fanciful examination of the English language’s most brilliant writer is how it explores the act of artistic creation. As our play opens, Will Shakespeare is struggling mightily to write a single word. He is waiting for inspiration to strike, hoping it will hit him like a bolt of lightning. What he must learn over the course of the story is that the best and most profound inspiration is to be found in the people around you, in their beating hearts, restless minds and uniquely complicated stories. In this unsettling time, I am grateful to have that profound reminder.

— Christopher Liam Moore