It’s Columbus Day (aka NYC’s salute to Italian-Americans)! In celebration of the holiday, today we’re focusing on plays set all or part in Italy. And there are a lot to choose from…
- All’s Well that Ends Well (Florence)
- Antony and Cleopatra
- Coriolanus (Rome and Antium)
- Cymbeline
- Julius Caesar (Rome)
- The Merchant of Venice
- Much Ado About Nothing (Messina)
- Othello (Venice)
- Romeo and Juliet (Verona and Mantua)
- The Taming of the Shrew (Padua)
- Titus Andronicus (Rome)
- The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Verona, Milan and Mantua)
- The Winter’s Tale (Sicily)
How does Shakespeare portray Italy and its inhabitants? Does this depiction change from play to play? Why do you think an English playwright chose to set many of his plays (a 1/3 of the canon) in Italy?
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