Shakespeare adapted and reconceived existing works to make his own plays, and there have been countless adaptations of William Shakespeare’s works across the world, with several inventive versions released in the twenty-first century. Some of the following titles are modern adaptations of Shakespeare’s works, while other titles imagine the life of the man who wrote them. Check out the following titles to see your television become a version of Shakespeare’s stage.
Shakespeare on the Screen
Based on: not one specific work. The 2018 film is a fictionalized account of the end of William Shakespeare’s life.
Kenneth Branagh, the director of All is True, stars as William Shakespeare. The movie starts with Shakespeare’s retreat to his home of Stratford-upon-Avon after his beloved Globe Theatre burns down in London. Shakespeare starts gardening while the end of his life awaits him. But All is True is not an HGTV show. While retired, Shakespeare also starts digging up his own past, such as his grief over his son’s death, and he must confront the life he missed—or avoided—while writing plays in the city. What is true in Shakespeare’s life? Find it all out by checking out All Is True.
Based on: Hamlet
Hamlet (2000) places Shakespeare’s famous play in New York City, and it deals with the conflict within the Denmark Corporation. The film features Ethan Hawke as the title character, who is filled with grief and confusion after his father’s murder. In the film Hawke notably recites Hamlet’s “To be, or not to be” soliloquy inside a Blockbuster Video. Hamlet also prophetically foretells that Blockbuster Video would not be better than Netflix (not really). How will Hamlet deal with his father’s murder? Will his desire for revenge cost him an exorbitant fee? Fast forward in life to the time when you acquire a copy of Hamlet to find out.
Based on: Twelfth Night
Motocrossed is a Disney Channel Original Movie from 2001. Motocrossed is about the motocross-loving Carson family, which owns Carson Racing. Andrew Carson, its racer, enters the Cup series for a chance at a factory sponsorship. Unfortunately, Andrew suffers an injury during an informal race against his sister Andi. Yet Andrew’s father Edward refuses to replace Andrew with his sister Andi because of her gender and goes overseas to find a replacement rider. But with her mother’s approval, Andi enters the Cup series disguised as her brother. Will Andrea’s identity be revealed? Will her father pump the brakes on her racing career? Rev up Disney’s Motocrossed to find out!
Based on: When You Were Mine by Rebecca Serle. Serle’s novel gives a backstory to Romeo’s ex-girlfriend Rosaline from the start of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
Wherefore art thou Rosaline? Rosaline, a comedy film released in 2022, provides a backstory to Romeo’s ex-girlfriend. It begins with Rosaline secretly seeing Romeo behind her father’s back. At the same time, Rosaline’s father acts as her matchmaker by setting her up with other men. One date involves a thrice-married man who thinks it’s cute that Rosaline wants to have a career as a cartographer. While Rosaline is away on another arranged date, she misses the Capulet masquerade ball, where Romeo develops feelings for Rosaline’s cousin Juliet. He even plagiarizes his own poetry for Rosaline when he declares his love for Juliet. What can we expect from Rosaline? How will she map out her love life? Will the Capulet cousins catapult Romeo out of their lives? Watch Rosaline to find out.
Based on: Lucy Negro, Redux: The Bard, A Book, and A Ballet by Caroline Randall Williams. Lucy’s work is about the “dark lady” featured in Shakespeare’s sonnets.
Black Lucy and the Bard, first performed by the Nashville Ballet in 2019, premiered on PBS in 2022. The ballet showcases Randall Williams’s interpretation that the “dark lady” in Shakespeare’s sonnets is a black woman. The ballet imagines the romance between William Shakespeare and Black Lucy, and it brings their relationship to life by weaving together Randall Williams’s poetry, Grammy award-winning musician Rhiannon Giddens’s music, and the dancing of the Nashville Ballet. Black Lucy and the Bard lets viewers see and feel the importance and beauty of blackness, writing, and the imagination.
Based on: Many of Shakespeare’s works. Upstart Crow aired on BBC Two from 2016 to 2020.
Upstart Crow is a comedic television show about how a writer comes up with his material. Sound familiar? The difference is that Upstart Crow is not about any writer (sorry, Jerry). It’s about William Shakespeare. Upstart Crow uses Shakespeare to satirize the creative process. Each episode of the series typically deals with Shakespeare’s inspiration for a single work. In an episode about Macbeth, three witches make a ghastly prediction that Shakespeare will become the owner of New Place. Shakespeare says that he would “kill” for that house since the housing market is crazy in Stratford-upon-Avon. In this show about nothing, William Shakespeare’s inspiration leads to the creation of his timeless plays.