Members of the Royal Shakespeare Company present a workshop before a television studio audience in which they interpret the rhythms and pronunciation of Shakespeare's English.

Members of the Royal Shakespeare Company present a workshop before a television studio audience to demonstrate how they rehearse and learn to perform Shakespeare's plays. In this masterclass on Shakespeare, director John Barton works on a scene from Troilus and Cressida ; Patrick Stewart contrasts two different performances of Enobarbus' speech from Anthony and Cleopatra.

Presenter/director John Barton guides members of the Royal Shakespeare Company in a discussion and dramatization of Shakespeare's use of language, meter, and verse. Barton and the actors address and analyze the question of how to understand Shakespeare's texts, citing examples of his plays, and, by contrast, the writings of other British authors of the period. Examples from Hamlet, Coriolanus, The merchant of Venice, and Othello.

Presenter/director John Barton guides members of the Royal Shakespeare Company in a discussion and dramatization of Shakespeare's use of blank verse. In the course of trying out different stresses, the actors discover how Shakespeare uses antithesis, short lines, end-stopped lines, and pauses in the middle of a line, and why Shakespeare's lines sometimes mis-scan. Also includes examples from the Miracle plays and other writings to demonstrate the alternatives to iambic pentameter.

Presenter/director John Barton guides members of the Royal Shakespeare Company in a discussion and dramatization of Shakespeare's use of language to define character, and his characters' use of heightened language to achieve their intentions. Explores the Elizabethan relish of words and the use of Elizabethan English in the development of Shakespeare's characters.

Presenter/director John Barton guides members of the Royal Shakespeare Company in a discussion and dramatization of Shakespeare's use of dialogue and soliloquy for story and audience purposes. Barton explains the differences between the two, what they contain, and how they arise.

Presenter/director John Barton guides members of the Royal Shakespeare Company in a discussion and dramatization of Shakespeare's use of irony and ambiguity. Barton analyzes some of Shakespeare's texts with the actors, and demonstrates how understanding the intended irony in a phrase or speech totally changes the perception of the character speaking.

Presenter/director John Barton guides members of the Royal Shakespeare Company in a discussion and dramatization of Shakespeare's use of passion and coolness. Barton and the actors demonstrate deliberate and striking inconsistencies in Shakespeare's characters; the characteristic Shakespearean mixture of deep feeling; choric elements; and the balancing of heightened language and naturalistic performance.

Concentrating on a scene from the Twelfth Night, presenter/director John Barton guides members of the Royal Shakespeare Company in a discussion and reading of the lines in search of Shakespeare's clues to character, language, and staging. Barton and the actors demonstrate how verse itself is a clue to the meaning.

Under John Barton's direction, two members of the Royal Shakespeare Company explore Shakespeare's character Shylock, to demonstrate how Shakespeare develops a character and the multiplicity of ways in which his characters can be understood. Given the same text from The merchant of Venice and the same direction, the different readings of the part demonstrate the infinite variety of Shakespeare's work.

Presenter/director John Barton leads members of the Royal Shakespeare Company in a discussion of Shakespeare's use of poetry and hidden poetry in seemingly unpoetic lines. Barton and the actors demonstrate how polysyllables trip easily off the tongue, while monosyllabic lines and words are packed with thoughts and feelings. They also explore Shakespeare's use of the words "time" and "death," along with contrast and sudden changes that occur.