Acclaimed critic Bloom (How to Read and Why) once again plumbs the depths of a Shakespeare play to reveal new insights, this time offering a richly detailed character sketch of Macbeth. In a close, ...

"Macbeth" is Shakespeare’s timeless treatise on subterfuge and vaulting ambition. It is his shortest tragedy and warns against seeking political power for its own sake. It also plumbs the dark ...

Not to deal in unsolicited prophecies, but if you go see the Washington National Opera production of “Macbeth,” you’ll love it. Giuseppe Verdi’s 1847 adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic (with an ...

Three hooded figures, all masked with gold, stand in a triangular formation. Their voices are eerily calm. Waves of distorted frequencies begin to permeate the theater. Suddenly, the figures drop to ...

See any great production of a classic, and it sets certain standards by which you’ll measure all others. See many very good to great productions, and you’ll amass a varied collection of such ...

Shakespeare’s Macbeth is timeless, but productions of it are so common that it seems that no one stages the tragedy anymore without some highly stylized reworking. A couple of recent Chicago shows, ...

The death of Yale English Professor Harold Bloom on October 14 brings to an end the career of one of the most prolific and widely read critics in the history of Western letters. Labelled a “colossus” ...