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Dedication
Patron? Collaborator? Employer? Voyeur? Lover?
Questioned about the nature of his relationship with the 3rd Earl of Southampton, William Shakespeare is on trial.
The evidence: tender poems, financial dependency, attempted revolution.
A compelling new drama set in Elizabethan England - a powder keg of sex, politics and power - Dedication by Nick Dear premiered at the Nuffield Theatre, Southampton, in September 2016.
Questioned about the nature of his relationship with the 3rd Earl of Southampton, William Shakespeare is on trial.
The evidence: tender poems, financial dependency, attempted revolution.
A compelling new drama set in Elizabethan England - a powder keg of sex, politics and power - Dedication by Nick Dear premiered at the Nuffield Theatre, Southampton, in September 2016.
96 pages, Paperback
Published May 15, 2018
9 people want to read
About the author
Nick Dear
17 books5 followersNick Dear is a British playwright and screenwriter. His best-known plays include The Art of Success and Frankenstein; among his many screenplays are Persuasion and Agatha Christie's Poirot. He lives in London, England.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 6, 2021
From BBC Radio 4 - Drama:
After 60 years of production The Nuffield Theatre in Southampton closed its doors due to Covid 19. We mark the venue’s great contribution to regional theatre with a production of Nick Dear’s Dedication, which he wrote for the Theatre in 2016 – a year dedicated to the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. It was written to commemorate both Nick’s and Shakespeare’s connection with Southampton. Nick Dear grew up in the city.
Shakespeare’s relationship with the Earl of Southampton has been the centre of much debate. Was he perhaps Shakespeare’s lover? Shakespeare dedicated his poems The Rape of Lucrece and Venus and Adonis to Southampton and it has been suggested that Southampton is the fair youth of the Sonnets.
Nick plays with three possibilities that may or may not explain an important period of Shakespeare’s life, sometimes referred to as The Lost Years, giving the audience the opportunity to make up their own minds. Much more is known about the Earl of Southampton than about William Shakespeare. It’s entirely possible that they never met, but it is equally possible they were lovers. No-one knows.
Dear puts Shakespeare on trial, where he is questioned about his relationship with the gay, cross dressing Earl of Southampton. It is set in Elizabethan England and it is a play of intrigue, sex, politics and power.
Cast:
William Shakespeare......................Alfred Enoch
Harry, Earl of Southampton.........Tom Glenister
Lord Chief Justice.............................Sam Dale
Other roles played by:
Nick Armfield, Tallulah Bond, Declan Mason and Finlay Paul
Writer: Nick Dear
Producer/Director: Celia de Wolff
Sound Designer: Lucinda Mason Brown
Broadcast Assistant: Anna de wolff Evans
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000...
After 60 years of production The Nuffield Theatre in Southampton closed its doors due to Covid 19. We mark the venue’s great contribution to regional theatre with a production of Nick Dear’s Dedication, which he wrote for the Theatre in 2016 – a year dedicated to the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. It was written to commemorate both Nick’s and Shakespeare’s connection with Southampton. Nick Dear grew up in the city.
Shakespeare’s relationship with the Earl of Southampton has been the centre of much debate. Was he perhaps Shakespeare’s lover? Shakespeare dedicated his poems The Rape of Lucrece and Venus and Adonis to Southampton and it has been suggested that Southampton is the fair youth of the Sonnets.
Nick plays with three possibilities that may or may not explain an important period of Shakespeare’s life, sometimes referred to as The Lost Years, giving the audience the opportunity to make up their own minds. Much more is known about the Earl of Southampton than about William Shakespeare. It’s entirely possible that they never met, but it is equally possible they were lovers. No-one knows.
Dear puts Shakespeare on trial, where he is questioned about his relationship with the gay, cross dressing Earl of Southampton. It is set in Elizabethan England and it is a play of intrigue, sex, politics and power.
Cast:
William Shakespeare......................Alfred Enoch
Harry, Earl of Southampton.........Tom Glenister
Lord Chief Justice.............................Sam Dale
Other roles played by:
Nick Armfield, Tallulah Bond, Declan Mason and Finlay Paul
Writer: Nick Dear
Producer/Director: Celia de Wolff
Sound Designer: Lucinda Mason Brown
Broadcast Assistant: Anna de wolff Evans
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000...
January 1, 2020
this features both will shakespeare and henry the Hot Earl of southhampton in drag, and also in a relationship, and i....didn't love it ????? i can't believe this is only middling so-so kinda meh because QUEER SHAKESPEARE !!!! someone get me Nick Dear on the phone
May 16, 2025
I tried really, really, really hard to love the play, but I couldn't. The author focuses much more on describing the historical context (even though the play is fiction) than on the relationship between the main characters, which is really a shame. There aren't many works that are interested in Shakespeare as a queer character. I would have welcomed fewer monologues; I found them almost superfluous in many scenes. I can imagine them on stage as intimate thoughts played from a recording, but certainly not as monologues to the audience. That's why I give only 3 stars - the play is fine, but I think it needs to be seen live.
January 16, 2024
3.5. Fun examination of Shakespeare as a political figure.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews