Time-Life Television
Description
Twins Sebastian and Viola are separated after a shipwreck and believe each other dead. Viola disguises herself as a page boy, Cesario, to work for Duke Orsino and falls in love with him, but he loves Olivia, who falls in love with Cesario. Seeing Sebastian one day, she mistakes him for Cesario and marries him. The confusion is cleared up when Viola and Sebastian meet again, and the Duke marries Viola. The subplot concerns the efforts of Sir Toby and...
3) Richard II
Description
A dramatization of Shakespeare's play, the story of a rebellion against the corrupt Richard II.
6) The tempest
Description
Television adaption of Shakespeare's play revolving around an enchanted island, an exiled Duke, young lovers, and a framework of conspiracy.
Description
Close friends Valentine and Proteus become rivals for the hand of Silvia, daughter of the Duke of Milan, who has promised her to the foolish coward Thurio. Proteus has Valentine banished, but Silvia escapes to the forest to join him. Proteus follows, with Julia who dotes on him. After a confrontation, the Duke eventually allows Valentine and Silvia to wed, and Proteus marries Julia.
8) Henry VIII
Description
Presents a dramatization of William Shakespeare's play about Henry VIII's scandalous resolution to divorce Katharine of Aragon in favor of Anne Boleyn.
9) Macbeth
Description
Driven by ambition and an unscrupulous wife, Macbeth murders the King of Scotland and claims the throne for himself. Haunted by ghosts and vexed by witches, he and his wife descend into the depths of madness and paranoia as they crumble beneath the weight of their crimes.
Description
King Leontes unjustly accuses his wife Hermione of adultery with King Polixenes. He imprisons Hermione, who falls into a swoon he believes is death, and orders her infant daughter to be abandoned on the shore. Sixteen years later, their daughter falls in love with Polixenes's son and when they come to Leontes' kingdom, her identity is revealed. Leontes and Polixenes become friends again, and Hermione is found to be alive after all.
12) King Lear
Description
Intending to divide his realm among his three daughters, the dictatorial Lear commands each give a testimony of her love. But after the gushing of malevolent Goneril and Regan, loyal Cordelia states: "I love your majesty according to my bond; nor more nor less." She is banished, and Lear's descent into madness begins. Stars Michael Hordern and John Shrapnel. - Container
Description
Cruel Angelo is left in charge of Vienna when the Duke pretends to leave town. Angelo revives an old law against fornication and sentences Claudio to death for seducing Juliet, Claudio's betrothed. Claudio's sister, Isabella, pleads for his life and Angelo offers to spare him in exchange for her virginity. Angelo's corruption and severity are punished when the Duke reveals that he has witnessed it all.
14) Richard III
Description
Presents Shakespeare's play about Richard of Gloucester, a self-proclaimed villain, who usurps the crown from King Edward IV.
Description
The marriage of two strong-minded people provides the spark for a comic confrontation between the sexes: The "shrew," Katharina, is so ill-tempered she seems unlikely to find a husband. Her father refuses to let her younger sister marry until Katherina is off his hands. Petruchio appears, marries Katharina, and "tames" her so well that he wins a bet with two other men on a test of their wives' obedience. Dr. Miller's production portrays Petruchio...
Description
Shakespeare's play about devilish fairies, bedeviled lovers and tradesmen-actors. Plots intertwine as entangled love affairs, the comical performance of a "play within a play" by the tradesmen of Athens, and the antics in fairyland among King Oberon and his queen Titania produce a bizarre series of entanglements, but all ends happily
Description
The Prince of Tyre is pursued by the vengeance of King Antiochus because he discovered the monarch's incestuous relationship with his daughter. Fleeing from place to place, Pericles is shipwrecked, courts, and marries Thaisa. Their child, Marina, raised by friends when Thaisa is believed to have died, is kidnapped by pirates and sold into a brothel before Thaisa is discovered alive and the family is joyfully reunited.
20) Cymbeline
Description
King Cymbeline's evil second queen forces the king to banish his daughter Imogen's husband, Posthumus. While the queen tries to force Imogen to marry her own son, Posthumus flees to Rome. There he is tricked into believing Imogen has been unfaithful. Imogen disguises herself as a boy and flees the court.