The canned laughter and applause really does a disservice to the information contained therein, as does the ham-handed portrayal of Mark Twain, who admittedly was fascinated by the Shakespearean authorship controversy. These rough edges are rounded out, however, thanks to the fascinating knowledge base of the two guests. A previous understanding of the basic controversy surrounding Shakespearean authorship will help in the early part of this program, as labels like "oxfordian" and "baconian" are tossed around with nary an explanation, but the program soon veers into interesting territory that glosses over this oversight. For those interested in further reading on the topic, I would recommend the book "Who Wrote Shakespeare." Incidentally, the fiction Steven Greenblatt dreams of writing I believe has already been written - the play "School of Night" by Peter Whelan deals with Marlowe's life and contains an implied sexual tryst between Marlowe, Shakespeare, and the Dark Lady of the sonnets. Another very good play on the authorship controversy is Amy Freed's "The Beard of Avon."

All in all, I found this program interesting and amusing, dealing, as it does, with a subject that is so much literary and historical detective work full of sound and fury, yet ultimately signifying nothing (barring an as yet undiscovered archeological proof). Whoever wrote Shakespeare was a genius (or many geniuses, if one believes in group authorship), and whoever he or she was, we know, revere, and love him as Shakespeare. Still, it's fun to conjecture.