shakespeare and euripides: romance plays
In his final plays, something inspired Shakespeare to turn away from Tragedy to write plays which critics sometimes call Romances. These are plays which still deal with tragic material, but treat it in a new way, leading to apparently happy endings.
Romance of this kind reaches back to what is past, to re-think and transform it, and is perhaps as old and archetypal as story-telling itself.
In his later plays, Euripides too turned to folk and romance motifs, which reached Shakespeare through the same kind of old tales that Euripides knew and worked with. Both playwrights used these tales to create wonder: to create unforgettable scenes of recognition, restoration, and redemption.
The folk motifs include healing potions, transformative shipwrecks, the child lost at birth with tokens for recognition, the families separated by anger or jealousy, restorations from death, the children who can save, the sense of some mysterious power shaping events.
And such motifs can carry with them darkness. We will explore the plays that use such romance motifs to discuss: what do we need to happen: what is it that gets restored, who is reunited and to what effect?
For we need to ask: is all really well that ends well? In the hands of these two great playwrights, do these final scenes leave behind the grief, the loss, the bitter division? In these ‘strange sea changes’ when 'that which is lost is found’, is all forgotten, is all even forgiven?
Join us for a six-week course led by Cambridge scholars Dr Fred Parker and Dr Jan Parker. Tuesdays, 20 January to 24 February 2026, 6.00-8.00 pm UK time. Live online.
Lecture list
• 20 January 2026. Shakespeare, Pericles (selected scenes) and Shakespearean romance
• 27 January 2026. Euripides, Alcestis
• 3 February 2026. Shakespeare, All's Well that Ends Well
• 10 February 2026. Euripides, Ion
• 17 February 2026. Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale
• 24 February 2026. Shakespeare, The Tempest
Course fees (prices include 20% VAT)
£310 full price
£290 students on low income
£290 CAMcard holders
£210 Shakespeare lectures only
£105 Euripides lectures only
Each session lasts from 6.00 pm to 8.00 pm British Time, live online via Zoom. Please check the time in your time zone.
To book, click on image below.
