Audiobooks by Eliza Langland

Thou Art Alive!: Shakespeare Cue-scripts and the Secrets They Tell

"Written in two parts in an accessible, conversational style, this book is more than a ‘how-to’ primer on the cue-script method: how Shakespeare and his actors staged his plays with minimal to no full company rehearsal. In Part 2, the author (a professional actor, director and academic researcher) expands upon how she has used this approach to Shakespeare herself and, as a result, made some ground-breaking discoveries. For those listeners who may be unfamiliar with cue-scripts, and to bring the text to life, through performance, this edition, first published in print and e-book format in 2017, has been specially rewritten, updated and adapted for audio. The word on the page being, of course, vital to the process, the audiobook comes with a free, downloadable pdf and the updated version is also available in print and as an e-book.' A lifelong dedication to the theatre arts and a personal vow to help keep theatre alive, inspired its title. But of course it was Ben Johnson who said it first: “Thou art alive while thy book doth live.” Thy book being, of course, The first Folio (1623). The insights provided in this book, as well as in the other books you'll find recommended in its bibliography, confirm just how authoritative the First Folio (1623) really is. To anyone who finds this book useful, may you feel inspired to verify, refine and expand upon this work and, in turn, share your findings with you own audience, readers, students and colleagues. The modest number of personal, new and surprising insights it has been possible to include in this slim volume is suggestive of many more to come."

Eliza Langland (Author), Andrew Stanson, David Elder, Eliza Langland, Fiona MacKinnon, Steven Finley (Narrator)

Audiobook

Play Sample Listen For Free

Damned Ghost: How Shakespeare saw through it and we didn't

"In Hamlet, Shakespeare's play, a ghost tells a prince a terrible tale. ‘Is it true?’ the prince asks himself. This book asks, and answers, that same question. A ghost is something one may see and believe or look through and doubt. Doubt runs through the entire play. But it is in how Shakespeare used the ghost - missing from the original tale - The Story of Amleth - that he revealed a surprising truth; something not generally known. A story, from real-life history, sits unrecognised behind this play. Retold in the Ghost’s speech. Shakespeare lifted it almost word for word. And it tells us why Hamlet is right to test its word. To those who knew the truth, the ghost was transparent (and will be again to the readers or listeners of this book). Shakespeare, as always, lets us decide. From where he sat, writing his play in his own and his audience's time, he was imagining a future yet to come based on what had recently come to pass. We, in our time... we forgot. (As a bonus, listeners will finally find out what is that book that Hamlet reads. You know the one? Containing 'words, words words'?) Abridged and adapted for audio from Elsinore: Hamlet, History Hidden in Plain Sight, by the same author, this book, written in a conversational style, follows a film crew shooting on location, looking for where Hamlet was really set. (It’s not where you think.) The title - Damned Ghost - is from the scene in which Hamlet tells Horatio, ‘There is a play tonight before the King. One Scene of it comes near the circumstance which I have told thee of my Father’s death.’ He says that if the king does not betray himself as a murderer, well, then the ghost was lying. ‘Observe mine Uncle. If his occulted guilt do not itself unkennel in one speech, it is a damnèd ghost that we have seene.' But we don’t start there. We're on a film set watching another re-enactment of real-life history and a very significant real-life death ..."

Eliza Langland (Author), Crawford Logan Andrew Stanson Eliza Langland (Narrator)

Audiobook

Play Sample Listen For Free