Amazon.com

Here's an idea: watch Shakespeare in Love and keep that film's re-creation of the Globe Theatre in mind while playing The Play's the Thing. Set in the Globe, this board game encourages players to get to know their Bard a little better. Each player is an unemployed actor in Elizabethan England, desirous of performing as many scenes as possible from Shakespeare's plays. The object of the game is to assemble all the cards necessary to mount and perform a particular scene from Julius Caesar, Hamlet, or Romeo and Juliet (actually, performance is optional). Roll a die and make your way across the board, which features all sorts of stage mishaps, duels, and missed cues. There are four levels of play geared toward different degrees of familiarity with Shakespeare's work. There are also several variations on the basic game that can be played; instructions are included. This is a great way to brush up on the three featured classics (in fact, several teachers are quoted in the packaging as using The Play's the Thing to increase student involvement with the material). Ages 12 and older. --Tom Keogh

From the Manufacturer

Our goal was to present the works of Shakespeare in a way that captures the spirit of his work and the pure fun and excitement of the theater. So besides learning the characters, plots and quotations from Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar, players will experience the stage mishaps and the much anticipated reviews. No knowledge of Shakespeare is required. Ages 8 and up, 2 to 6 players.