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Shakespeare's ear : dark, strange, and fascinating tales from the world of theater / Tim Rayborn.

by Rayborn, Tim, 1968- author.

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New York, NY : Skyhorse Publishing, c2017.

Theater -- Anecdotes.

Theater -- Miscellanea.

Theater -- Humor.

xiv, 249 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm

Introduction: The grim and the unusual in the history of western theater -- Act I: The strange lives and odd fates of playwrights, actors, theater companies, and more -- The ancient world -- Ancient Greece and Rome -- The Middle Ages and Renaissance -- The Tudor and Stuart ages: a golden age of English theater -- The seventeenth century -- The eighteenth century -- The nineteenth century -- The modern age -- Intermission -- Act II: A dark and weird theatrical miscellany -- The Shakespeare you may not know -- The Commedia dell'arte -- The bloody theater -- An abundance of superstitions, curses, and bad luck -- Haunted theaters -- An encore of theatrical oddities -- Exit stage left.

"Shakespeare's Ear presents dark and sometimes funny pieces of fact and folklore that bedevil the mostly unknown history of theater. All manner of skullduggery, from revenge to murder, from affairs to persecution, proves that the drama off-stage was just as intense as any portrayed on it. The stories include those of: An ancient Greek writer of tragedies who dies when an eagle drops a tortoise on his head. A sixteenth-century English playwright who lives a double life as a spy and perishes horribly, stabbed above the eye. A small Parisian theater where grisly horrors unfold on stage. The gold earring that Shakespeare wears in the Chandos portrait, and its connections to bohemians and pirates of the time. Journey back to see theatrical shenanigans from the ancient Near East, explore the violent plays of ancient Greece and Rome, revel in the Elizabethan and Jacobean golden age of blood-thirsty drama, delight in the zany and subversive antics of the Commedia dell'arte, and tremble at ghostly incursions into playhouses. Here you will find many fine examples of playwrights, actors, and audiences alike being horrible to each other over the centuries"--

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