Her other work includes Believe What You Will and King John for the Royal Shakespeare Company.

BBC: Josie Rourke named new Donmar Warehouse director

In 1980, he appeared alongside John Cleese in the BBC Television Shakespeare production of The Taming of the Shrew.

BBC: Obituary: Frank Thornton

Here, at the centre of the town, not far from Christ Church Cathedral, stood the Crown Tavern, a 14th-century pub once owned by Shakespeare's friend John Davenant.

BBC: Following in the Bard��s footsteps �C literally

And while the concepts reach back to Shakespeare and Moliere, John Tillinger, the director of "Don't Dress for Dinner, " points out that Aristophanes's "Lysistrata, " in which women withhold sex as a means of bringing an end to war, qualifies, as well.

WSJ: One Spring, Two Farces

The director John Barton told us that, when Shakespeare wants to make his most heartfelt statements, he uses the simplest language, which needs no paraphrasing.

WSJ: Word Craft: Sir Antony Sher on Acting Shakespeare

Other plays in the season include a production of William Shakespeare's Richard II and Inadmissible Evidence by John Osborne.

BBC: Jude Law returns for Michael Grandage's Donmar farewell

In 1954, when he won the Nobel prize, his friend, John O'Hara, declared extravagantly that he was the most outstanding author since Shakespeare.

ECONOMIST: He loved to rock the boat