Poor Naked Wretches: Shakespeare's Working People

(Hardback)

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Was Shakespeare a snob Poor Naked Wretches challenges the idea that our greatest writer despised working people, and shows that he portrayed them with as much insight, compassion and purpose as the rich and powerful. Moreover, they play an important role in his dramatic method. Stephen Unwin reads Shakespeare anew, exploring the astonishing variety of working people in his plays, as well as the vast range of cultural sources from which they were drawn. Unwin argues that the robust realism of these characters, their independence of mind and their engagement in the great issues of the day, makes them much more than mere 'comic relief'. Compassionate, cogent and wry, Poor Naked Wretches grants these often-overlooked figures the dignity and respect they deserve.

'Aiming to upend the notion that Shakespeare was a snobbish playwright with contempt for the poor...This original spin on Shakespearean studies delivers.' Publishers Weekly

Reviews

"This study comes from Unwin's work as a theatre director, and his frustration with the way the industry traditionally treats Shakespeare's working-class characters. As an introduction to the characters themselves . . . Poor Naked Wretches usefully and enjoyably allows us to focus on roles that are not usually placed centre stage."-- "Times Literary Supplement"
"All who relish the Bard will be delighted by stage director Stephen Unwin's terrific book Poor Naked Wretches: Shakespeare's Working People. For my money, the volume should be made required reading for all the directors who routinely patronize Shakespeare's proletarian characters, treating them as dumb clowns, only fit for 'comic relief.' This study makes a convincing case that the Bard's concern for the lower classes is essential to how he sees the world, and that his radical sensitivity to political injustice is closer in spirit to the iconoclasm of Bertolt Brecht and Karl Marx than many critics will admit."-- "ArtsFuse"

Author Bio

Stephen Unwin is a London-based theatre and opera director, who founded English Touring Theatre in 1993 and opened the Rose Theatre, Kingston in 2008. His books include (with Kenneth McLeish) Faber and Faber's Pocket Guide to Shakespeare's Plays, and his original plays include All Our Children (London and New York).