What’s Missing in Shakespeare?

Shakespeare's plays are often complicated by what they lack. Key characters go missing from scenes or drop out of the action entirely; absent characters exert influence over those onstage; mislaid or immaterial objects are pivotal to the resolutions of plots; urgent questions are settled through silences; and plays are frequently haunted by untaken roads or abandoned plot threads. In addition, contemporary performances are shaped significantly by cuts to the script, with some scenes or characters rarely realized in performance, and some plays rarely performed at all.