No matter how much I enjoy a museum exhibition or art gallery show the exhibition catalogue always seems to be a little bit of a dry read in comparison. Yet, even though I skipped seeing the actual show for “Shakespeare in Ten Acts” at the British Library (due to budgetary constraints at the time), I supremely enjoyed reading this show catalogue 3 years later! The logical manner of the show’s organization divided the book into 10 chapters, each centreing around a particular Shakespearean performance throughout history and using it as a jumping off point to explore larger themes around Shakespearean theatre, performance challenges and innovations, storytelling methods, and other topics. Being a supreme organizer, this technique appealed to me from the outset and ultimately it worked to really cement the themes that each chapter explored in depth without becoming too esoteric and caught up in a general love of Shakespeare. Each of the chapter authors obviously has a deep understanding of the Bard’s work, but their unique research interests are explored in depth with their singular contributions rather than each acting as a generalist - a far preferrable outcome for readers, since I doubt that most people reading this book are unfamiliar with Shakespeare’s work and they are likely specifically looking for a more in depth analysis. Having finished reading the book, I kind of regret now missing out on the show, since most of the study that I’ve done of Shakespeare has focused on either film adaptations or simply textual analysis, which is a far cry from the performance-centred focus of this exhibition. Having been to London as well, the book actually reveals quite a bit about the cultural attitudes towards Shakespeare and theatre over time and I was particularly impressed with their discussion about the physical aspects of Shakespearean theatre spaces and the reconstruction of Shakespeare’s Globe (which I did get the pleasure of visiting and seeing a play in). Overall, this book was a wonderful read, and a great example of how enlightening an exhibition catalogue can be in retrospect while still standing on its own as a piece of literature. ( )