Shakespeare’s plays have been entertaining theatre audiences for 400 years. The Bard has retained his place as the most famous writer of all time due to his deft touch with pre-existing stories, incredible word play and memorable, fully formed characters.

Opus Arte has joined forces with Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre to release some of his best-loved plays.

Love’s Labour’s Lost is overflowing with the punning and clever wordplay that Shakespeare is renowned for. Sparring between the sexes and thwarted attempts at seduction are all intermingled around a ‘play within a play’.

As You Like It is another of the Bard’s comedies, with characters falling in and out of love with impressive speed, before a very tidy pairing off at the end. As You Like It features one of the most famous Shakespearian speeches, beginning with the line ‘All the world’s a stage’.
 
Romeo & Juliet is arguably the most popular of Shakespeare’s plays. The timeless tale of two star-crossed lovers, it is, regardless of tragedy status, full of equally timeless romantic epithets: ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?’

Filmed live on stage at the Globe, these three productions reveal just how contemporary the humour and predicaments of Shakespeare’s characters are.