William Shakespeare’s extraordinary works have inspired generations of writers, actors, and audiences. More than four hundred years after he last put quill to paper, his complex plots and themes continue to ignite imaginations.

Author Ed Schwartz’s Witness to Collapse is a collection of brief one-act plays inspired by five of Shakespeare’s best-known tragedies: Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, and Othello. Schwartz’s “poemscripts”—poetic dramas—examine the central problems in these classics from new perspectives. Some are retold by one of the Bard’s original characters; others, by newly invented characters.

Many of Shakespeare’s plays center on the societal, political, or psychological collapse of the characters’ worlds, and Schwartz’s poemscripts take a fresh look at the resulting turmoil. In “Two Lovers from Verona,” an eyewitness to the suicides of Romeo and Juliet describes how their deaths result in the downfall of his city. In “Prospero’s Island,” the titular sorcerer relates a wonderful daydream in which his fears about his daughter’s safety are allayed despite the collapse of their world.

Devotees of Shakespeare’s writing will relish the opportunity to return to Venice, Rome, Denmark, Verona, and Prospero’s island to immerse themselves in Schwartz’s thoughtful, fresh takes on the Bard’s plays.

About the Author

Ed Schwartz teaches at the University of Southern Maine Senior College. He is the author of The Jews That I Knew, Stories from the World, and Faithful Voices.

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