The English Channel

"Robert Brustein is the rarest of rare amphibians: a powerful theatre practitioner who is also a powerful critic.... Savvy, fearless, opinionated, and fathomlessly curious, he is at once steeped in the classics and alert to the most recent tremors on the cultural seismograph." - Stephen Greenblatt

"How did Shakespeare do it? It’s an irresistible question for scholars, artists and critics, and while Robert Brustein, one of the true Renaissance men of the modern stage, has played all of these roles, he approaches the subject with humility." - New York Times

"Including digressions into religious, political and social debates of the day, the play imagines Shakespeare as a man very much of his time, preserving the mystery of his genius while presenting him as willing to do anything in the service of his art. It illustrates something Mr. Brustein once wrote: 'Playwriting is not so much a craft as an obsession.'" - New York Times