Random and topical thoughts and quotes gathered by My Theatre Mates contributor Aleks Sierz, first published on www.sierz.co.uk.
“In any case, Shakespeare-the-man should ideally be viewed within his own historical context, in so far as this is possible, and not Romanticized or Victorianized. I don’t believe that any successful Elizabethans, even Shakespeare, were what might now be called ‘nice’ — liberal, unprejudiced, modest in their ambitions and pretensions. For most persons of talent in this period, even those who, unlike Shakespeare, enjoyed the privileges of high birth, a measure of ruthlessness was a necessary skill.”
– Katherine Duncan-Jones’s Shakespeare: An Ungentle Life
Aleks Sierz FRSA is a theatre critic, and author of the seminal study of new 1990s playwrights, In-Yer-Face Theatre. His other books include Rewriting the Nation, The Theatre of Martin Crimp, John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger, The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary British Playwrights and Modern British Playwriting. His latest book (co-authored with Lia Ghilardi) is The Time Traveller’s Guide to British Theatre. He also works as a journalist, broadcaster, and lecturer. Aleks blogs independently at www.sierz.co.uk and tweets at @alekssierz.
