Nothing Is Truer than Truth

Nothing Is Truer than Truth presents a case for Edward de Vere, seventeenth Earl of Oxford, as a central creative force behind the plays usually credited to William Shakespeare. The film follows the trail of a year and a half De Vere reportedly spent in Italy, moving through Venice, Verona, Mantua, Padua and the Brenta, and uses those locales to connect real streets and stages to scenes in The Merchant of Venice, Othello, Romeo and Juliet and Two Gentlemen of Verona. Interviews with actors, directors and scholars alternate with on-site footage and period detail, while the filmmakers argue that De Vere's experiences with commedia dell'arte and his sexuality influenced the voice behind the Shake-speare name. The documentary avoids dramatic reconstruction and keeps interpretation front and center.

Released in 2018 and directed by Cheryl Eagan-Donovan, the film was shot on location across northern Italy and draws on Oxfordian scholarship. The cast includes contributions from Sir Derek Jacobi, Mark Rylance, Tina Packer and Diane Paulus.

The film had a limited theatrical and festival run, targeting academic and specialist audiences rather than mainstream multiplexes. It did not register significant commercial impact and there aren't widely published box office totals.

Critics and viewers have been divided, with a small sample of ratings skewing negative, the film holding a 3.5/10 average from a handful of votes. Reviewers who disliked it questioned the strength of the documentary's evidentiary claims and its argumentative framing, while supporters praised the location photography and the way interviews bring the Oxfordian perspective to life. Central themes are authorship attribution, performance practices like commedia dell'arte, and how sexuality can shape historical interpretation.

Among niche communities the film sparked renewed discussion of the Oxfordian theory and offered a useful visual primer on sites tied to the authorship debate. It hasn't changed mainstream Shakespeare studies, but it has become a reference point for enthusiasts who prefer historical-location approaches to literary argument.