Shakespeare's England in 1606 with James Shapiro

1606, while a very good year for Shakespeare (he wrote Macbeth, King Lear and Antony and Cleopatra), was a fraught one for England. The plague had returned. There was resistance to the new king's desire to turn England and Scotland into a united Britain. Fear and uncertainty across the land exposed deep divisions in the aftermath of a failed terrorist attack that came to be known as the Gunpowder Plot. Join James Shapiro to explore how Shakespeare’s plays responded to the tumultuous events of 1606.

James Shapiro, who teaches English at Columbia University in New York, is author of several books, including 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare (winner of the BBC4 Samuel Johnson Prize in 2006), 1606: William Shakespeare and the Year of Lear, as well as Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? He also serves on the Board of the Royal Shakespeare Company. This talk will be chaired by Mark Lawson.