A thoroughly revised edition of the successful student text Doing Shakespeare, first published in 2005. The book's success lies in the close readings of speeches and scenes it gives students, demystifying the language of the plays and critical approaches to them. This new edition introduces a new way of approaching Shakespeare's text, through ideas of performance and the actor's role and restructures the content to make it easier to navigate, with clear signposting throughout, guiding students to the content most useful to them. Simon Palfrey takes a direct approach to the common difficulties faced by students "doing" Shakespeare and tackles them head-on in a no-nonsense style, making the book especially accessible. He brings us much closer to the animate life of the plays, as things that are not finished monuments but living material, in process and up for grabs, empowering students to see opportunities for their own creative or re-creative readings of Shakespeare.