At last, a book that explains all of Shakespeare's works by way of pop culture. Written by a guy Taika Waititi once called "New Zealand's foremost authority on Shakespeare".

David says:

On one level Shakespeare’s Tropes is a narrative textbook exploring how all of Shakespeare’s plays are fundamentally about the dead coming back to life; on another level it’s a fun pop-culture analysis of how the whole Shakespeare canon can be explained by way of The Beatles, The Simpsons, The Sopranos, the Star Wars films and the Mountain Goats.

A chronological companion to the canon, Shakespeare’s Tropes charts the development and evolution of Shakespeare’s recurring themes and motifs from The Taming of the Shrew in 1589 all the way through to Cardenio in 1613.

Once described as “the Nick Cave of NZ classical theatre,” David Lawrence is a multi-award-winning theatre director.