Main content

Samuel West

Actor and director Samuel West shares his own passion for Shakespeare and for his portrayal of love as neither good nor bad but strange and many-sided.

In the third of our Shakespeare and Love series of essays, the actor and director Samuel West shares his own passion for the many and varied portrayals of love in Shakespeare's sonnets and plays. For Shakespeare, the opposite of love is not hate but indifference and his understanding of the true nature of love is like no other. The course of true love never does run true for love is neither constant nor predictable or even enjoyable most of the time. For Shakespeare, love's definig character is its compelling strangeness.

Available now

15 minutes

Last on

Wed 25 Apr 2012 22:45

Broadcast

  • Wed 25 Apr 2012 22:45

Death in Trieste

Death in Trieste

A 1760s murder still informs ideas about aesthetics, a certain sort of sex, and death.

Watch: My Deaf World

Watch: My Deaf World

Five compelling experiences of what it is like to be deaf in 21st-century Britain.

The Book that Changed Me

Five figures from the arts and science introduce books that changed their lives and work.

Download The Essay

Download The Essay

Download all the episodes from the series and listen at your leisure.

Podcast