Reading Room - Actors' and Directors' Interpretations

Actors on Shakespeare : a rich series of slims volumes published by Faber & Faber; especially recommended are F. Murray Abraham on A Midsummer Night's Dream (2005), Simon Callow on Henry IV Part 1 (2002), David Oyelowo on Henry VI (2002), Saskia Reeves on Much Ado about Nothing (2003) and Harriet Walter on Macbeth (2002)

Michael Bogdanov, Shakespeare: The Director's Cut (2 vols, 2003-5) – polemical, political, fiercely contemporary

Clamorous Voices: Shakespeare's Women Today , edited by Carol Rutter (1994) – interviews with leading female actors

Tony Howard, Women as Hamlet (2007) - revelatory

Michael Pennington, Hamlet: A User's Guide (1996), A Midsummer Night's Dream: A User's Guide (2005), Twelfth Night: A User's Guide (2004) – all extremely detailed and especially valuable for students of theatre studies

Players of Shakespeare , edited by Robert Smallwood (6 vols, 1988-2005) – interviews with RSC actors about playing a wide range of major parts

Antony Sher, Year of the King (1986) – incomparable insight into the playing of Richard III

There are hundreds more fine books on Shakespeare, but anyone who reads The RSC Shakespeare: Complete Works from cover to cover and then devours a reasonable proportion of the above will have earned the right to consider themselves an exceptionally highly informed Shakespearean.