A cluster of interconnected stage and televisual performances and adaptations of the history play canon illustrate the function that Shakespeare’s narratives of incipient "British" identities fulfill for the postcolonial United Kingdom. The book analyzes treatments of the plays in a range of styles—staged performances directed by Michael Boyd with the Royal Shakespeare Company (2000–2001) and Nicholas Hytner at the National Theatre (2003, 2005), the BBC’s series (2012, 2016), the RSC and BBC adaptations of and (2013, 2015), and a contemporary reinterpretation of the canon, Mike Bartlett’s (2014, 2017). This book will be of great interest to scholars and students of Shakespeare, theatre, and politics.