King of Shadows
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King of Shadows is a children's novel by Susan Cooper published in 1999 by Penguin. The book was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal.
Only in the world of the stage can Nat Field find an escape from the tragedies that have shadowed his young life. So he is thrilled when he is chosen to join an American drama troupe travelling to London to perform A Midsummer Night's Dream in a new replica of the famous Globe Theatre.
Shortly after arriving in England, Nat goes to bed ill and awakens transported back in time four hundred years—to another London, and another production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Amid the bustle and excitement of an Elizabeth theatrical production, Nat finds the warm, nurturing father figure missing from his life—in none other than William Shakespeare himself.
[edit] Synopsis
Nat Field is recruited by Arby, a director intent on a reenactment of the Globe Theatre in London whose real name is Richard Babbage, reproducing Shakespeare's plays the way they were 400 years ago. The company of boys, said to be the best, are members handpicked by Arby from all over America. Nat acts as an aerial sprite, Puck, from Midsummer Night's Dream. However, he suddenly falls ill and is taken to the hospital with fear of having the bubonic plague. During the night before he goes to hospital, he dreams of being tossed high above the earth and then pulled firmly back. He wakes up with a boy talking to him in a heavy Elizabethan accent. He has time traveled back 400 years, to the year 1599, when the Globe theater was first built. He meets William Shakespeare, acting with him in the play he had rehearsed for in his own time, and experiences theater as it was originally intended. He becomes a good friend with William Shakespeare and before he knows it, he is back in the hospital bed awake and not knowing if what has just happened is true or not. Later in the book, Gil Warmun and Rachel Levin come by and try to find out who he was 400 years ago.
[edit] Characters
Nathan Field, Roper, William Shakespheare Richard Burbage/ Arby
[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
The novel was adapted for the stage in 2005 and premièred at the New York State Theatre Institute NYSTI, starring P.J. Verhoest as Nat, David Bunce as Shakespeare, John Romeo as Burbage, and Aaron Marquise as Roper.
