| William Shakespeare, recently voted "man of the millennium", is a remarkably shadowy historical figure. No one disputes the fact that while he was writing his plays, he was also appearing in both his own plays and those by other authors. It is therefore surprising that little attention has been paid to his acting, nor its implications. At what age did he begin as an actor? Did he direct as well? What roles did he play? John Southworth, himself an actor, sets out to answer these and other questions that are rarely addressed in traditional accounts of Shakespeare's life and work. Drawing on contemporary records and his own practical experience of the plays in the theater, he presents a new hypothesis as to the so-called "lost years" and examines the plays in detail for the light they have to throw on the circumstances of their first creation. Shakespeare the Player is a fresh and compelling work of reinterpretation.
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