William Shakespeare’s Star Wars

William Shakespeare’s Star Wars – Ian Doescher

What if George Lucas’s Star Wars had been written by William Shakespeare? Ian Doescher answers that question in William Shakespeare’s Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope, a playful retelling of the original 1977 film in the style of the Bard.

The story follows the familiar plot of A New Hope, with Princess Leia captured by Darth Vader, young Luke Skywalker discovering his destiny with the help of the wise Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the roguish smuggler Han Solo and his loyal Wookiee companion Chewbacca joining the mission to rescue her and destroy the Death Star. But everything is presented as an Elizabethan play, divided into acts and scenes and written mostly in iambic pentameter, with stage directions, soliloquies, asides and rhyming couplets.

Doescher adds Shakespearean flourishes throughout. A Chorus introduces the action and describes battle scenes in space, characters reveal their inner thoughts in dramatic soliloquies, and familiar lines from the film are cleverly reworked into verse. One of the most delightful touches is R2-D2, who speaks only in beeps to other characters but shares witty asides with the audience in perfect English. Fans will also notice playful allusions to Shakespeare’s own plays, such as Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet.

Illustrated with Elizabethan-style woodcut drawings of the characters, the book is a clever mash-up that celebrates both Star Wars and Shakespeare.

William Shakespeare’s Star Wars is a fun, inventive read for fans of either, and a playful way to introduce young readers to Shakespearean language. It is the first in a series retelling the Star Wars saga.