Muse of Fire

the long version

In a remote future age when the human enterprise has all but ground to a halt. a wandering troupe of players is dedicated to presenting the works of Shakespeare to every accessible corner of the settled universe. When aliens take an interest, the players find themselves giving command performances of King Lear, Hamlet and the Scottish play for a series of increasingly important alien species, with evidence that the fate of all humanity may rest on the quality of their work.