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This collection of stories by well-known and established writers centers around the dramas of William Shakespeare. Some take up where the play ends. Some show us what happens behind the action on stage. In several the Bard himself helps to solve the mystery. It is not necessary to be a Shakespearean scholar to read and enjoy these stories, but a little familiarity with the plays will make the tales more pleasurable. I know there were at least two plays I had to look up the précis to make sure I remembered the story. Jeffrey Deaver in ³All the World¹s a Stage² shows us Shakespeare helping the son of an old friend from Stratford get justice posthumously for his father. In ³There Are Pearls That Were His eyes² Carole Nelson Douglas speculates about what may have happened after The Tempest had concluded and Prospero and Miranda had sailed away to Milan. Perhaps Caliban might follow the only family he knew and perhaps there was more to Caliban than ³ugly wretch.² It¹s hard to imagine Hamlet as amusement but Robert Barnard does that in ³The Fall of the House of Oldenborg² told by the ³silent Irishman² who pulled the strings for the ineffective Hamlet. Sharan Newman, in ³Jack Hath Not His Jill,² forces us to reexamine the chronicle in Love¹s Labour Lost from the point of view of Anne, the Princess of France, who is treated so cavalierly by the King of Navarre. Gillian Linscott examines one of the more obscure plays, Coriolanus, and takes us back to Roman times scrutinizing events from the Roman¹s wife¹s point of view. Another play it is hard to imagine as a comedy is the Scottish play, Macbeth, and yet Marcia Talley in ³Too Many Cooks² tells a very humorous tale. She speaks of the three daughters of Squire and Mistress Weird who have been left on their own and are trying to make a living by casting spells. They are not very good at this and they tend to make up prophecies. Can they help it if Macbeth actually believes what the Weird sisters tell him? Edward Marston uses a minor character in Henry V in ³Squinting at Death.² Fluellen, on the battle field of Agincourt, exposes the murderer of Davy the Squint. Simon Brett in ³Exit, Pursued,² discovers the reason for the odd stage direction in The Winter¹s Tale (³Exit, Pursued by a bear.²) One of the most chilling tales is ³Richard¹s Children² by Brendon DuBois who talks about the eternal conflict between liberty and order and poses questions for our world and which we are choosing. P.C.Doherty in ³The Serpent¹s Tooth² gives intimations of King Lear, as a detective from the Office of the Night investigates the death of Shakespeare. Anne Perry, who edited the book, contributes ³Ere I Kill Thee,² in which the players reenact Othello in their own lives. These are many and varied, but all are thought-provoking and intriguing. You can dip into the collection and read a story or two or do as I did and start at the beginning and read straight through. You will not be unhappy if you keep your volume of Shakespeare¹s plays beside you. But even if you have never read a play or seen one produced, you will still find this a most enjoyable collection of short stories.
Reviewed by Sally A. Fellows, December 2002
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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