Meeting in Valladolid, A

Synopsis: Radio play by Anthony Burgess based on his short story of the same name. The story tells of a meeting between Shakespeare and Cervantes while the King’s Men entertain at an Anglo-Spanish peace conference in 1606. Titus Andronicus is a flop and Shakespeare, inspired by seeing a bullfight, rewrites Hamlet and doubles its length, introducing Falstaff as a character. At the close of the play Hamlet ascends the throne. Cervantes is unimpressed and a disillusioned Shakespeare contracts syphilis on the way home and dies from the disease ten years later. A Spanish negotiator insists that the First Folio must be published to make a trilogy with the Bible and Don Quixote. [With acknowledgement for plot detail to Susanne Greenhalgh].
Language: English
Country: Great Britain
Medium: Radio
Transmission details: 10 Apr 1991 at 21:00 (Channel: BBC Radio 3)
Duration: 95 mins

General: Produced for European Radio Week. The play was transmitted simultaneously across Europe in ten languages.
Reviews: Susanne Greenhalgh, ‘Listening to Shakespeare,' Shakespeare on Film, Television and Radio: The Researcher’s Guide (London: Wallflower Press, 2009).

SHAKESPEARE