Relevance is an undertheorized concept in the arts, despite its increasing centrality to discourses of culture and value. In 2019, Arts Council England changed their funding guidelines to value relevance over excellence. Their 2020 strategy is led by engagement with ‘Inclusivity and Relevance’ as one of the four Investment principles, reflecting a growing cultural preoccupation. Relevance is a particularly prolific term in discourses of Shakespeare, from productions striving to speak to the contemporary moment, to teachers drawing parallels between the plays and students’ lives as a means of engagement. This thesis offers analysis and discussion of such texts across politics and funding bodies, educational resources in and out of the classroom, online debates and opinion pieces, and adaptations and performances and their paratexts.