Stories from Shakespeare – The Plantagenets

Lesser leads an ensemble cast through eight Shakespeare plays, beginning with gloomy Richard II before moving on to Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI, concluding with the wicked but laughable Richard III. Elizabethan period music sets the dramatic scenes and provides a bridge between stories. In a mellow British accent and dignified pace, Lesser reads detailed prose versions of the plays. At strategic points, the ensemble actors create a sense of theater by declaiming the speeches word for word. Many of these interludes are famous monologues, but frequent dialogues add interest and variety. An accompanying booklet contains information about each play as well as a track-by-track guide (most helpful, as the back cover erroneously divides Henry V into three parts). This production, like four earlier Shakespeare recordings from Naxos, works both as a graceful pre-theater listening experience and a classroom resource.

Kristi Elle Jemtegaard, Booklist

Lesser leads an ensemble cast through eight Shakespeare plays, beginning with gloomy Richard II before moving on to Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI, concluding with the wicked but laughable Richard III. Elizabethan period music sets the dramatic scenes and provides a bridge between stories. In a mellow British accent and dignified pace, Lesser reads detailed prose versions of the plays. At strategic points, the ensemble actors create a sense of theater by declaiming the speeches word for word. Many of these interludes are famous monologues, but frequent dialogues add interest and variety. An accompanying booklet contains information about each play as well as a track-by-track guide (most helpful, as the back cover erroneously divides Henry V into three parts). This production, like four earlier Shakespeare recordings from Naxos, works both as a graceful pre-theater listening experience and a classroom resource.

Kristi Elle Jemtegaard, Booklist

At last, the baffling complexities of the Wars of the Roses unravelled, and a battle-by-battle guide to Shakespeare’s history plays. I need fret no longer whether it was in Henry IV Part 1 or Henry VI Part 3 that Suffolk betrayed Gloucester or Salisbury ratted on York. Junior versions of the classics are so much clearer.

Sue Arnold, The Guardian