BEN CRYSTAL

“An absolutely joyous, gasp-out-loud achievement.”
Stephen Fry

Shakespeare had an ear and hand that was able to capture our everyday thoughts and emotions, pin them to a page, and express them so well that still today they can make us feel stunned to be seen.

'Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.'
'Make not your thoughts your prisons.'
'Wisely and slow. They stumble that run fast.'
'And I have heard it said, unbidden guests are often welcomest when they're gone.'

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Everyday Shakespeare - Lines for Life

With a quote for every day of the year, this beautiful book gathers the finest lines from the lesser-known corners of Shakespeare's plays and poems. While you may not be familiar with these 400-year-old phrases, you will be surprised by the immediate, easy resonance they have with modern day-to-day life and, hopefully, inspired to learn a few quotes, say them out loud, and drop them into conversation.

Each page bears a gift of Shakespearean delight - around which lies a treasure trove of trivia, miscellaneous fact, and opportunities for reflection.

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The Crystals - son and father - draw attention to points of daily life, literary, linguistic, and theatrical interest through their entertaining commentary. They offer notes of context for anyone who wants to know who originally said the words, in which play, and why. And finally, the authors provide three indexes, allowing readers to help find the right quote for a task, or to follow-up on a quote's original source.

Shakespeare's words are a mirror for us to peer into, to see if any part of ourselves, familiar or strange, is visible. Each day as you read his lines, you'll get glimpses of loves you've known, jealousies you've felt, relationships you've had, and situations you've encountered that bring a smile - or a wince - of familiarity.

Everyday Shakespeare shares the simple lines that encapsulate the wondrous complexity of life, and the enduring appeal of the Bard.

The Shakespeare North Playhouse: Replica Theatres and Their Uses

This collection celebrates the opening of the Shakespeare North Playhouse (SNP).

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After discussion of its genesis and development by four people pivotal to its progress at different stages of the project, this book explores different aspects of the SNP’s purpose and functions across three broad categories: buildings and spaces, practices and performance, and community arts and education.

Various chapters offer answers to fundamental questions about replica theatres, including: Why do we build them? What do they do? How do we use them? In the course of these discussions, the purposes, potential, and programming of the SNP are discussed in relation to other Globe-type replicas in the UK and beyond. Contributors to this collection analyse key academic and practice-based concerns within their fields of expertise connected to the use (and misuse) of replica theatres to suggest the ways in which they can be used to drive research and practice in contemporary Shakespearean performance, connect with young people, and serve local communities.

This book will appeal to academics, students, and practitioners interested in historical and contemporary approaches to Shakespeare in the fields covered. It should also appeal to general readers with an interest in the topics, particularly in Merseyside and the North-West region.

Chapter 11: Interview with Ben Crystal, SNP associate artist and independent author/actor/creative producer/theatre practitioner

In this interview, Ben Crystal talks about his role as an SNP Associate Artist, contemporary Shakespearean theatre practice, and his recent production Lights On/Lights Off¸ in which a scene from every play in the First Folio was performed at the SNP over Shakespeare’s birthday weekend in April 2023. This was the first time the ‘end-on’ stage configuration had been used at the Cockpit Theatre, albeit with a temporary version of the frons scenae (scenic front) backing the stage.

Will’s Word Warriors

Booklets written for primary school students, filled with inspirational and fun games playing with Shakespeare’s words.

These booklets are given freely to primary schools for Shakespeare Week, an annual national celebration organised by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.

Shakespeare Week offers primary school-aged children a chance to have a great first encounter with Shakespeare - his characters, stories and language. 

Wonderful creative learning resources, co-written with David Crystal

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Innovation & Digital Theatremaking

Rethinking Theatre with “The Show Must Go Online”

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Innovation & Digital Theatremaking introduces a blueprint for how to think differently about Theatre, how to respond creatively in uncertainty, and how to wield whatever resources are available to create new work in new ways.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic had a colossal impact on theatre across the world. At a time when even the wealthiest and best-supported theatre companies in the world ceased all operations and shuttered their stages, the theatre company The Show Must Go Online (TSMGO) forged its way into a new frontier: the highly accessible digital landscape of online performance. In this book, TSMGO creator Robert Myles and Valerie Clayman Pye explore the success of TSMGO from a practical standpoint,

offering insights and strategies that can help theatremakers at every level respond proactively to the future of Theatre in the digital era. Each chapter addresses a different aspect of the creative process and concludes with take-homes so readers can learn how to innovate rapidly, undertake research and development in order to create their own models, and cultivate their own theatrical communities.

Written for theatremakers, directors, producers, and creatives of all levels of experience, this book will help readers to think critically and creatively about theatre and theatre pedagogues to understand how to train their students for the theatre of the future.

Curating Guest Introductions (and Creative Producing) - Ben Crystal

Lockdown Shakespeare

New Evolutions in Performance and Adaptation

This edited collection offers the first in-depth analysis and sourcebook for 'lockdown Shakespeare'.

It brings together scholars of stage, screen, early modern and adaptation studies to examine the work that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 and considers issues of form, liveness, reception and community. Interviews with theatre makers and artists illuminate the challenges and benefits of creating new work online, while educators consider how digital tools have facilitated the teaching of Shakespeare through performance.

Together, the chapters in this book offer readers the definitive work on the evolution and adaptation of Shakespeare online during the global pandemic.

David Sterling Brown and Ben Crystal contribute the chapter, In the Time of Corona: Questioning What You Will, an exploration and analysis of The Shakespeare' Ensemble’s 2020 digital promenade, What You Will.

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Oxford Illustrated Shakespeare Dictionary

Rethinking Theatre with “The Show Must Go Online”

Essential guidance for students and playgoers around the world

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Shortlisted for the Educational Writer of the Year Award, 2016

A unique dictionary to unlock the mysteries of Shakespeare’s world, words and language, compiled by renowned English language expert David Crystal and Shakespearean actor and producer Ben Crystal

Over 4000 Shakespearean words clearly explained with examples from the twelve most studied and performed plays including Macbeth, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, and A Midsummer Night's Dream

Notes giving insights into Shakespeare’s use of language, his society, and theatrical performances

Panels covering the language used in a wide range of fascinating topics including money, insults, and swearing

Full-colour illustrations of the Elizabethan's bright cosmos, sharp and vicious weapons, fashions of the day, musical instruments, and maps of the lands and place names!

This is the most up-to-date and accessible language reference tool which will boost your understanding and enjoyment of Shakespeare’s plays.

You Say Potato

New Evolutions in Performance and Adaptation

Everyone has an accent, though many of us think we don't. We all have our likes and dislikes about the way other people speak, and everyone has something to say about 'correct' pronunciation. But how did all these accents come about, and why do people feel so strongly about them? Are regional accents dying out as English becomes a global language? And most importantly of all: what went wrong in Birmingham?

From reconstructing Shakespeare's accent to the rise and fall of Received Pronunciation, actor Ben Crystal and his linguist father David travel the world in search of the stories of spoken English.

Witty, authoritative and jam-packed full of fascinating facts, You Say Potato is a celebration of the myriad ways in which the English language is spoken - and how our accents, in so many ways, speak louder than words.

Some people say scohn, while others say schown.

He says bath, while she says bahth.

You say potayto. I say potahto.

And -

- wait a second, no one says potahto. No one's ever said potahto.

Have they?

An authoritative, entertaining book about our accents, and what they say about us

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Springboard Shakespeare



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"Springboard Shakespeare is the perfect tool for actors, students, theatre-goers and anyone interested in understanding Shakespeare. Ben Crystal has created guides that are a valuable and accessible way to enjoy Shakespeare's genius."
Kenneth Branagh


Hamlet, Lear, Macbeth and Dream are the most studied and performed of Shakespeare's plays. These accessible introduction soffers a springboard into each play, taking a hands-on, performance-based approach, exploring the challenges and the rewards it presents to actors, audiences and students.

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Springboard Shakespeare has a three-part structure: whether you're watching or reading, Ben Crystal takes you through exactly what you need to know Before, During and After the play. He combines a genuine passion and understanding of Shakespeare with his experience as an actor, giving the reader a clear route to thinking about, understanding and enjoying four of Shakespeare's greatest works.

"Springboard Shakespeare is excellent - a copy should come with every theatre programme!"
Judi Dench

"Springboard Shakespeare is brisk, punchy and full of illumination!"
Dominic Dromgoole, Artistic Director of Shakespeare's Globe

Sorry I'm British

"An entertaining combination of wry comments and fond observations. Very handy for Brits and non-Brits alike."

David Else - Author of the Lonely Planet Guide to Great Britain

Sorry I'm britishExplore the oddities of the British psyche with this informative and witty illustrated guide. For a nation that loves to laugh at themselves, this is the perfect companion when wandering lonely through the clouds of British behaviour.

From small-talk to superiority, from the famous stiff upper lip to hooliganism, from cricket to condiments, and curry to class, this book will take you through the sometimes sarcastic, often poetic, generally polite, never boastful but universally proud realm of all that's British - its culture, its institutions and its people.

"Light-hearted, informative, and highly readable. Ed McLachlan's hilarious cartoons complement the text perfectly."

Jonathan Crowther - Author of the Oxford Guide to British and American Culture

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The Shakespeare Miscellany

This compilation, in the tradition of the Victorian miscellany, gathers together essential facts and fascinating insights into the plays and poems, the man behind them (insofar as this is known), and the context in which he worked.

Put together by an actor and a linguist - the pair who brought you 'Shakespeare's Words' (25000 copies sold as of 2005) - it will be quirky, illuminating and endlessly interesting.

Topics covered include lost plays, what he would have studied at school, Shakespeare's pronunciation, why the Globe burned down and the difference between a Folio and a Quarto.

Shakespeare on Toast

shakespeareontoast.com

"Shakespeare on Toast is a brilliantly enjoyable, light-hearted look at Shakespeare which dispels the myths and makes him accessible to all. I love it!"
Judi Dench

Shortlisted for the Educational Writer of the Year Award, 2010.

Who’s afraid of William Shakespeare? Just about everyone. He wrote too much and what he wrote is inaccessible and elitist. Right?

Wrong. Shakespeare on Toast knocks the stuffing from the staid old myth of Shakespeare, revealing the man and his plays for what they really are: modern, thrilling, uplifting drama.

The colourful words and vibrant world of the world’s greatest hack writer are brought brilliantly to life by actor Ben Crystal. Sweeping cobwebs from the Bard – his language, his life, his world – Crystal reveals man and work as relevant, accessible, alive.

This is a book for everyone, whether you’re studying Shakespeare for the first time or you’ve never set foot near one of his plays, but have always wanted to. It smashes down the walls that have been built up around him, that have turned Shakespeare into an untouchable literary figure. Shakespeare, Crystal reminds us, invented popular culture.

Told in five fascinating Acts, this is quick, easy and good for you. Just like beans on toast. ...published by Icon Books, September 2008

"Excellent"
The Guardian

"A Masterclass"
The Times

"Compelling... A tasty snack with genius"
The Independent

"Ben Crystal is the Jamie Oliver of Shakespeare."
BBC Radio 5

"Humorous, unpretentious and fascinating."
Independent on Sunday

"Remarkable! This book should be read."
Sydney Morning Herald

"Shakespeare on Toast is reassuring and appealing ... you'll want all your Shakespeare-resistant friends to read it."
Around The Globe

"Ben Crystal's excellent book is an ideal way to gain an understanding of why Shakespeare is so brilliant, and so enjoyable."
Sir Richard Eyre

"Ben Crystal's witty and engaging book is a relaxed, user-friendly reminder that enjoying Shakespeare should be as easy as breathing."
Dominic Dromgoole, Artistic Director of Shakespeare's Globe

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Shakespeare's Words: A Glossary and Language Companion

shakespeareswords.com

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"Detailed, comprehensive, fascinating."
Kenneth Branagh

Shakespeare's Words is for people who love Shakespeare, or who love language, or both. David Crystal, one of the world's leading experts on the English Language, and his actor son Ben, have created an immensely practical and enlightening guide to understanding Shakespeare's language for readers, audiences, students, directors and actors. They have collected over 14,000 words that can cause difficulty or be amiguous to the modern reader. Each word is glossed and illustrated by at least one quotation. There are succinct precis of the plays, lists of dramatis personae and a unique diagrammatic circle for each play demonstrating the interaction of characters and their allegiances. With special panels on intriguing areas such as archaisms, greetings, farewells and swear words, as well as dialects, Greek mythology, weapons and money, Shakespeare's Words will greatly enrich every reader's understanding and appreciation of the plays, and will encourage a new generation to treasure them.

Guardian Interview

"This is a fascinating guide to Shakespeare's language, an indispensable treasure chest for anyone who loves watching or reading the plays and is curious about the meaning, use and derivation of the language."
Sir Richard Eyre

"There can be no doubt that [the editors] have carried out their work admirably"
John Goss in The Sunday Telegraph, 9th June 2002

"The editors ... have produced a huge work of user-friendly scholarship ... It works brilliantly"
The Economist, 14th June 2002

"Shakespeare's Words is one of the very few works of reference that deserves a place on the shelves of all Shakespeare lovers and for that matter all lovers of the English language. In all too many cases explanation of Shakespeare's words - both those that have become obsolete and those that have changed in meaning - have been passed down from editor to editor since the nineteenth century. David and Ben Crystal, by contrast, have returned to first principles and in so doing produced the most comprehensive guide to Shakespeare's astonishing linguistic inventiveness that has ever been compiled."
Professor Jonathan Bate

Copyright © 2025 Ben Crystal