Shakespeare: No Improving on the Original

CHAUCER PLAGIRIZED MUCH of The Canterbury Tales, and most of Shakespeare’s narratives existed long before he put ink to paper. Adaptation and reinvention run alongside the greatest artistic pursuits, and it has long been a skill of fine artists to steal for the purpose of making something better and different. It is especially daring, though, to try and rewrite Shakespeare. Many have done so: Endgame, Samuel Beckett’s apocalyptic reimagining of King Lear, is so different from the original play that you have to squint to find the tyrant, just as Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead capitalizes on the most significant themes of Hamlet while remaining an original and independent work. An adaptation must be recognizable, paying homage to its source, but it must also be its own.