Shakespeare Republic

- Season 1

(2015)

"If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly ..." Come on a journey into the darker recesses of human ambition as we meet a modern day, but equally murderous Macbeth as he wrestles with his conscience in a dilemma all too familiar to the Australian public. "I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, only vaulting ambition ..."

Hamlet suspects his uncle has murdered his father to claim the throne of Denmark and the hand of Hamlet's mother, but the prince cannot decide whether or not he should take vengeance.

"Speak the speech, I pray you ..." An imagined meeting behind the scenes at the highest level as we meet Hamlet played by Billy Smedley (Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries) giving us a taste of what it must be like to be a political media adviser in the current climate. " - to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure."

"O Romeo, Romeo. Wherefore art thou, Romeo?" Meet our "Jules" played by Ben Steel (Home and Away, Winners and Losers) who gives us an insight into how modern romance operates, glitches and all, in a digital age. "Deny thy father and refuse thy name."

"Think not I love him though I ask for him ..." Meet Phebe, played by Michala Banas (Upper Middle Bogan, Nowhere Boys), as she gives us an uncomfortable insight into unrequited romantic obsession and the dangers of having access to modern communication devices when one too many alcoholic drinks have been imbibed. "I will write to him a very taunting letter ..."

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" And so, all good things must come to an end. In our final episode for Season One of Shakespeare Republic, meet Billie, played by Sally McLean (Utopia), as she shares with us arguably Shakespeare's most famous sonnet in a truly Australian setting - with a factual twist. "But thy eternal summer shall not fade ..."