148 minutes
October 2015
DVD set R0 (NTSC)
5060291820089
Subtitles:
English SDH,
French, German,
Italian, Spanish,
Portuguese,
Chinese (traditional),
and Russian.
Audio Described

Also available for download

Muse of Fire: A Shakespearean Road Movie

“Dan Poole and Giles Terera have accomplished something truly great with this wonderful guide to Shakespeare. I wish it had been around when I was a young actress.”  Judi Dench

“An indispensable aid to debunking Shakespeare and making him accessible” Ian McKellen

“Muse of Fire demystifies the difficulty of understanding Shakespeare, but keeps all of the magic.” Tom Hiddleston

Funny, passionate, and exciting, Muse of Fire will change the way you feel about Shakespeare forever.

This unique feature documentary follows two actors, Giles Terera and Dan Poole, as they travel the world to discover everything they can about tackling the greatest writer of them all. Consulting a host of helpful luminaries along the way, including Ian McKellen, James Earl Jones, Judi Dench, and Tom Hiddleston, their exciting road trip takes them to Denmark with Jude Law, Hollywood with Baz Luhrman, a prison in Berlin and Shakespeare’s home in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Admitting that they often struggled to understand the Bard, even finding him frightening, a host of today’s top actors speak openly about their early encounters with the most famous storyteller in history. Giles and Dan enthusiastically set about tackling the fear and debunking the myth, showing us how Shakespeare can be incredible fun.

Muse of Fire is a heartfelt and inspiring film that aims to demystify and illuminate Shakespeare‘s work for just about anyone: from actors, directors, theatre-goers, and students, to the person on the street. Think Shakespeare is boring? Think again!

DVD extras include a 60-minute film, Shakespeare in Practice, featuring actors and practitioners at London’s National Theatre Studios. Extracts from Shakespeare’s works including Sonnets, As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet are accompanied by fascinating commentary by Ian McKellen, Bonnie Greer, Fiona Shaw, Peter Gill, Brian Cox, Derek Jacobi, Henry Goodman, and John Barton.

Extras also include the music video to The Willow Song from the Muse of Fire original soundtrack. The music partnering Shakespeare’s text is composed by Giles Terera.