From the Royal Shakespeare Company — a fresh new edition of two of Shakespeare's classical plays. This book includes: — Illuminating introductions to Titus Andronicus and Timon of Athens by award-winning scholar Jonathan Bate; — The two plays — with clear explanatory notes on each page; — Helpful scene-by-scene analyses and key facts about both plays; — An introduction to Shakespeare's career and the Elizabethan theatre; — Rich explorations of approaches to staging both plays featuring photographs of key productions of each. The most enjoyable way to understand a Shakespeare play is to see it or participate in it. This book presents a historical overview of two of Shakespeare's classical plays Titus Andronicus and Timon of Athens in performance, recommends film versions, takes a detailed look at specific productions and includes interviews with three leading Directors — Gregory Doran, Yukio Ninagawa and Michael Pennington — so that we may get a sense of the extraordinary variety of interpretations that are possible — a variety that gives Shakespeare his unique capacity to be reinvented and made 'our contemporary' four centuries after his death.