Codpieces: a triple bill

'To be or not to be?' may be The Question, but it is not the only one. Hamlet, Part II, for example, answers a question about Hamlet that has plagued scholars, readers and play-goers for over four hundred years: What happened next? Prince Lear tackles yet another conundrum: What happened just before the start of King Lear, setting in motion the improbable events of Act I, scene 1? And in Fatal Loins, the question answered by the play is directly posed in the prologue: 'If Juliet and Romeo survive / Will their eternal passion stay alive?'

“I am no stranger to Shakespearean parody… but reading Pontac I am (only slightly) mortified to find that he can write cod Shakespeare much better than Peter Cook, Jonathan Miller, Dudley Moore or myself” – Alan Bennett, from the foreword