ABOUT SHAKESPEARE
Shakespeare is the story of Shakespeare as it has never been told before: in a single dramatic work (play, screenplay and audio play) that covers his entire life, from childhood to death. Remarkably, Shakespeare’s own life resembled a Shakespeare play, or more accurately a series of Shakespeare plays: Comedy, in which he and his fellow players steal a theatre; History, in which they become involved, unwittingly or otherwise, in a plot to overthrow the Queen, Elizabeth I; and, finally, Tragedy, in which Shakespeare faces a long-overdue reckoning with his past.
In addition to the play, screenplay and audio play of Shakespeare, Part One of the story (Comedy) has been adapted into a graphic novel or comic called Saving Shakespeare by Vangelis Karadimas, a Greek animator (whose work can be seen on YouTube), and it is hoped that Parts Two and Three (History and Tragedy) will be adapted in the future.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Martin Keady is a multi-award-winning dramatist, journalist, lyricist, librettist – and poet. As a dramatist, his major credits include: Manhood, a comedy about a middle-aged man desperately trying to find the "fun" in "erectile dysfunction", which won The Jacques Tati Award for Best Comedy Script 2022 at Castillonnès Festival du Film; Man of Colour, a biopic of Walter Tull, one of Britain's first ever black professional footballers, who was driven out of the game by racism but rallied to become a hero of WWI, which won The Page Turner Awards Best Screenplay 2021; The Final (or A Short Film About Football), which was broadcast on Britain's Channel 4; Hello Goodbye (or Two Short Films About Love, Loss and Letting Go), which between them have won over a hundred awards at film festivals and competitions around the world, including the Stage 32 Short Film Contest and the HollyShorts Film Festival; Moon the Loon (co-written with Chas Early), a play about the legendary Who drummer Keith that premiered at the Edinburgh Festival and has subsequently been performed in London and Dublin; and a play for children, Three Tragedies, about some of Shakespeare’s most famous minor characters, which is published online with Drama notebook.
As a journalist, he writes regularly for a number of print and online publications, including on screenwriting and television writing for The Script Lab; on tennis for Last Word On Tennis; and on football for Last Word on Football. He has also written on the Olympics and politics for Channel 4 News.com; on being a “Green Gooner” (i.e. an Arsenal fan of Irish descent) for Arsenal and the London Irish Centre for the club’s first ever celebration of Irish History Month; and for The British Museum on Shakespeare and Chinese Opera. He has also contributed to a number of books on cinema and sport, including: Withnail & I: From Cult To Classic; and Little Legends: Herbert Chapman, a children’s book about Arsenal’s greatest ever manager that he is currently writing with Guy Harvey, the creator of the Little Legends series, which is due for publication in 2025, the 100th anniversary of Chapman becoming Arsenal manager. And he is a regular guest on the Tennis PAL Chronicles Podcast, discussing all things tennis.
As a lyricist, he has co-written Dreaming of England, a WWI lament, with Barnaby Robson; as a librettist, he has participated in the Royal Academy of Music’s Librettist Network; and as a poet, he has published Shards (or Sherds): A Hundred Short Poems, extracts from which have been broadcast on Radio 4 and published in the inaugural "Poets Issue" of KollideZine magazine.
Martin has Masters Degrees in English Literature from Cambridge University, in Shakespeare Studies from The Shakespeare Institute in Stratford on Avon, and in Playwriting from The Central School of Speech and Drama in London. Having lived in Ireland and Los Angeles, he now lives in London with his wife and three children.