They cannot make it true."Ī bet is made that someone can do it. The Queen doesn't believe that a play can accurately portray love: "Playwrights teach nothing about love, they make it pretty, they make it comical, or they make it lust. She's shocked that Viola loves poetry and plays so much. Did we mention kissing? Shakespeare in Love even took home MTV's Best Kiss award in 1999 ( source).Īnyway, Queen Elizabeth I is interrogating Wessex's bride-to-be. This includes kissing, writing, and other things ending in –ing, including visiting the Queen. Yep, there's a woman underneath all that.Īnd so begins their passionate love affair. Just to make sure, Will goes to her room and takes off all her boy's clothes. This prompts him to chase down Thomas Kent, who finally reveals that he is actually Viola. If you know anything about Shakespeare, it's that he loves him some forbidden love. Viola-as-Thomas delivers a letter to Will from Viola-as-Viola forbidding him from pursuing their relationship further. Lord Wessex has decided to marry Viola in two weeks and take her to the Colony of Virginia. A theater troupe called the Admiral's Men, led by Ned Alleyn, joins the play, and Viola-as-Thomas takes the role of Romeo.īut Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou so sad? Will rushes home to write new scenes, using Viola (who, unbeknownst to Will, is his Romeo) as inspiration for his Juliet. Will tells Wessex his name is "Christopher Marlowe" and flees.īut he meets Viola on her balcony, and their interaction is so romantic that someone should it in a play. However, Viola is engaged (against her will) to Lord Wessex, who wants to know why this scrawny little writer keeps dancing with his woman. There he meets Viola, who is simply gorgeous (and female), and Will falls hard for her.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE FULL
He follows Kent to the de Lesseps estate where a party is in full swing. So she straps down her chest, puts on some boy's clothes, changes her name to Thomas Kent, and auditions for the role of Romeo. Viola wants to be an actor in a time where women aren't allowed on stage. If that doesn't sound like a man's name, it's because it isn't. But who will play Romeo?Įnter Viola de Lesseps. It's starting to sound like the play we're familiar with. Romeo is a lovesick Italian, in love with a girl he cannot be with, etc. In the pub, he meets fellow playwright Christopher Marlowe, who gives him a few revisions for his play. (Note: Don't ever answer an ad on Craigslist looking for a muse.)ĭepressed, Will drinks away his sorrows. Where's he going to look now? He can't put an ad on Craigslist looking for a muse. Tilney, the Master of Revels, their writer/muse relationship is kaput. He thinks it might be Rosaline, seamstress to actor William Burbage, but when he catches her in bed with Mr. William Shakespeare, a dreamy lad, needs a muse.
Hmmm… sounds like it could use a bit of editing.īut first, it could use a bit of writing. He promises a new play soon, one sure to fill seats: a comedy by William Shakespeare called Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter.
Henslowe isn't good at managing money, but he swears he's good at managing talent.
Hugh Fennyman, who's lighting a fire under Henslowe's feet. The Rose's owner, Philip Henslowe, is being tortured by his financier, Mr. We're backstage of the Rose, an Elizabethan theater, and there's more drama backstage than there is onstage. What light through yonder film screen breaks? It is the beginning of Shakespeare in Love, which tells us that it's 1593.