Anne, his family, friends, colleagues, lovers, acquaintances and Shakespeare himself surface as echoes from the past and take roles in the plays, perhaps as recollections of real moments from his life which inspired his writing. In this production, we encounter both worlds. In his imaginary world, Shakespeare wrote of and gave voice to some phenomenal women as well as men. They were wife, daughter, lover, prostitute, confidante, friend, neighbour. In Shakespeare’s historical world, his actors were all men. The production takes Shakespeare’s Sonnets and interweaves them with scenes from some of the plays, to examine Shakespeare’s relationship with his family and his wife’s view of her husband. How did Anne and William Shakespeare maintain their long-distance marriage? How did they cope with the death of their only son in Shakespeare’s absence? What did Anne feel when she saw her husband’s poems written to another woman? What chance was there for them of reconciliation and peace?Īs Shakespeare lies dying, these questions must have been very present to him. Meanwhile, in August 1596, one of the Shakespeare twins – Hamnet – had died in Stratford at the age of 11. There has always been a mystery about to whom the Sonnets were addressed. This was the second scandal of Shakespeare’s life, because the Sonnets were love poems and were not written for his wife. His Sonnets circulated in manuscript before they were published in 1609. His plays made him famous and so did his poetry.

Two more children – twins – followed, but then, at some point, Shakespeare left Anne and the children in Stratford and moved to London.

She was eight years older than him and at the time of the wedding she was already pregnant with their first child. Shakespeare was married to Anne Hathaway. The school's Head of Academic Studies for Drama, Eliot Shrimpton, and Dr Trudi Darby of King's College, London explain more: What did Anne feel when she saw her husband’s poems written to another woman?

Shakespeare in love common sense media