• In The Media
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• Overview
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• Details

The "Bankside Shakespeare" series offers the complete and unabridged text for GCSE Students. Each page includes two columns, one of the play's text, the other of sidenotes giving the meanings of difficult words and explaining the literal sense of the most complex ideas. There are also footnotes which provide further support to a full understanding of the text. This includes placing the language of the play in its historical context and referring the student to other places within the text. Synopses of the action appear at the beginning of each act and scene. Each book also contains accessible information about Shakespeare's life and times, the Renaissance, the staging of the plays, and background information to the key themes and paricular language features of each play. The text is therefore suited both to class study and to individual work. A range of photographs from some of the most influential recent productions illustrates each book and provides stimuli for discussion of costume, staging and dramatic presentation.