All’s Well that Ends Well

This play is famous for having one of the most well-known titles but being among the least performed. It's actually quite a well-crafted play; the problem is that the nice young woman, Helena, bizarrely loves one of the least likable characters in the entire canon, Bertram. But if you let that go, the play as a whole is quite entertaining and thought-provoking. And we must wonder why Shakespeare chose to write such a rascal and why Helena loves him despite. Here is a short as well as a detailed synopsis on Wikipedia.

For those of you who provide parts a scene at a time, this Character Chart shows all the characters' lines in each scene: All's Well that Ends Well

If your group reads the plays straight through in one sitting and you want to divide up the parts, we have a number of “cast” lists already divided up for you. These are text files that you can edit to suit the number of readers in your group. We always recommend in a straight-through read that each participant take a moment beforehand to mark their parts in their books—then everything proceeds so smoothly.

• Cast for 7, plus a reader for Stage Directions
• Cast for 9, plus a reader for Stage Directions
• Cast for 11, plus a reader for Stage Directions

This is the 1623 First Folio text for All's Well that Ends Well, sponsored by the University of Victoria.

The original story that Shakespeare used as a plot basis is interesting to compare to the play. You can read it here, the Decameron, the ninth story of the third day.

Back to the Readers' Editions and readers' support page.

This is an audio recording of the play by professional actors with sound effects:

This is from England so make sure it works on the type of DVD player you have.