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A podcast tracing the development of theatre from ancient Greece to the present day through the places and people who made theatre happen. More than just dates and lists of plays we'll learn about the social. political and historical context that fostered the creation of dramatic art.This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - chartable.com/privacy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Shakespeare in Shoreditch: A Conversation with Benjamin Blyth
Episode 237: When we think of Elizabethan theatre buildings the wooden open-air theatres The Globe and the Rose usually grab all the attention so I was pleased to find that a new book was coming out with the focus very much of the earlier C
The Tempest: ‘Our Revels Now Are Ended’
Episode 238: If the autumnal feel to the later plays suggest to us that Shakespeare was feeling his age and thinking on his own mortality his next offering, ‘The Tempest’ does little to dispel that idea. There has long been an urge to ident
Site Specific Shakespeare: A Conversation with Benjamin Blyth
Episode 237: Later in life Shakespeare was creating his plays with two very different performance spaces in mind, the Globe and the Blackfriars, but probably also with a mind to the portability of plays for when they were taken to the court
The Winter’s Tale: ‘What a Fool Honesty Is’.
Episode 236: During the days when the theatres were closed due to the plague, we don’t know if Shakespeare accompanied the King’s Men of tour, holed up in London or returned to Stratford-Upon-Avon for an extended stay, but when he emerged f
The Alchemist as a Plague Comedy: A Conversation with Kay Daly
Episode 235: Last time I took a first look at ‘The Alchemist’ where Ben Jonson mixed farcical comedy with satire and more serious commentary on the society of the 1610s. The play is notable, among other things, for having the time of plague
The Alchemist: ‘No Country’s Mirth is Better Than Our Own’
Episode 234: In 1610 Ben Jonson was penning what is often considered to be his most comic of comedies. Johnson was well into his middle age, being thirty-eight years old in 1610 and had several years of producing masques for the court behin
If This Be Magic – Translating Shakespeare: A Conversation with Daniel Hahn
Episode 233: Did you know that in 2023 you could have seen the play at Shakespeare’s Globe theatre in London presented in Juba Arabic using a translation by Joseph Abuk which he had produced for the South Sudan Theatre Company in 2011? Cymb
Cymbeline: 'Tis Slander, Whose Edge is Sharper Than the Sword’
Episode 232: Although ‘Coriolanus’ is officially Shakespeare’s last Roman tragedy his next play, ‘Cymbeline’, is set in the Roman period, but in England, and suggests that Shakespeare was still deeply attracted to Roman history, although in
Death by Shakespeare: A Conversation with Kathryn Harkup
Episode 231: Shakespeare in noted for the diversity of deaths in the plays and the way that he represents the mechanics of those deaths. My guest for this episode has written a book on this very subject, ‘Death by Shakespeare’, who’s subtit
Coriolanus: ‘What is the City but the People?’
Episode 230: Shakespeare probably did not realise it, but his next offering would be his last tragedy and his last Roman play, but for this one he reached back into a much earlier Rome than the world of Caesar, Mark Anthony and Cleopatra th
Shakespeare on Sex: A Conversation with Marc Berley
Episode 229: It has been long recognised that Shakespeare included a lot of sex references in his plays, many of which are now quite obscure to the modern viewer. Recently a book called ‘Shakespeare on Sex’ caught my eye and I had an entert
Epicene: ‘Silence in a Woman is Like Speech in a Man’
Episode 228: About the same time that Shakespeare was retelling the story of Pericles Ben Jonson was writing ‘Epicene, or the Silent Woman’, a play set very firmly in his home turf of London. It had been three years since Jonson had written
Lighting the Indoor Theatre: A Conversation with Nic Brownlee
Episode 227 One of the questions that immediately arises when we consider the indoor theatres is how they were lit, although there are also many other questions about how performing indoors was informed by the experience of the touring comp
Pericles: ‘Tis time to fear when tyrants seem to kiss’
Episode 226: Last time I took you through Macbeth, still one of Shakespeare’s most performed plays, but now we come to one that is rarely seen and vies with ‘King John’, ‘Two Noble Kinsman’ and ‘Timon of Athens’ as the least performed Shake
Shakespeare and Biblical Allusion: A Conversation with Paul Fried - Part 2
Episode 225: Last time my guest Paul Fried and I discussed Biblical Allusion in Shakespeare with particular reference to Hamlet. This is the second part of our conversation, so please do make sure you have listened to part one before contin
Shakespeare and Biblical Allusion: A Conversation with Paul Fried - Part 1
Episode 224: While I was looking into some details while I was preparing for the episodes on King Lear I came across an article that was part of a blog called ‘Hamlet’s Bible’, which is written by Paul Fried and was very pleased to find a s
Macbeth Part 2: 'What’s Done Cannot Be Undone’
Episode 223: Last time, in the first part of my look at ‘Macbeth’, I took you through the plot of the play and discussed the themes of ambition and guilt in it, with a focus on the character of Macbeth himself. I also looked at some of the
Macbeth Part 1: ‘Look Like the Innocent Flower, But Be the Serpent Under’t’
Episode 222: We can’t say for sure that ‘Macbeth’ was Shakespeare's next offering after 'Anthony and Cleopatra' as precise dating of these early 17th century plays is next to impossible, but whatever the case, it certainly has a very differ
Anthony and Cleopatra: ‘Age Cannot Wither Her, Nor Custom Stale Her Infinite Variety’
Episode 221: Last time I took you into the world of the court masque with the help of Kristen Macdermott who, I think you will agree, painted a very detailed picture of that very particular theatrical form and the way the Stuart court embra
Masques of Difference: A Conversation with Kristen McDermott part 2
Episode 220: This is the second part of my conversation with Kristen McDermott about the court masque. In this part we discuss two masques and the later history of the art form. Kristen McDermott is professor of English at Central Michigan
The Origins and Development of Masques: A Conversation with Kristen McDermott part 1
Episode 219: In this episode I take a look at the court masques of the Jacobean period. To do this I’m very lucky to have the guidance of Kristen McDermott who edited and wrote an extensive introduction to a collection of Jonson’s Masques c
King Lear Part 2: ‘Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise’
Episode 218: Last time I looked at the first part of ‘King Lear’ from the opening scene where Lear makes his disastrous decision to split his kingdom between his children, through to the renowned scene where the ex-king and his fool are cau
King Lear Part 1: ‘How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth it is to Have a Thankless Child!’
Episode 217: ‘King Lear’, the play that is now often regarded as Shakespeare’s finest and deepest work is most often compared to the other two great tragedies of this period in Shakespeare’s writing, ‘Hamlet’ and ‘Othello’, and of course th
Reading Shakespeare’s Mind: A Conversation with Steve Sohmer
Episode 216: For today’s guest episode I had the pleasure of talking to Steve Sohmer, author of a book titled ‘Reading Shakespeare’s Mind’. In his book Steve examines how Shakespeare’s relationship with several contemporary authors is expos
Timon of Athens: ‘Nothing Emboldens Sin So Much as Mercy’
Episode 215: Last time Ben Jonson regained his stride in the public theatre with his comedy ‘Volpone’, an at moments sparkling satire of greed and avarice. Just about the only parallel I can draw between this and Shakespeare’s next offering
Much Ado About Numbers: A Conversation With Rob Eastaway
Episode 214: For today’s guest episode I was pleased to get the chance to talk to Rob Eastaway, author of a book all about Shakespeare and his relationship to numbers and mathematics. Rob’s book ‘Much Ado About Numbers’ is a very entertaini
Volpone: ‘What a Rare Punishment is Avarice to Itself’
Episode 213: In the spring of 1606, a new Ben Jonson play premiered, not on this occasion at the Blackfriars theatre performed by one of the child companies, but at the Globe and performed by the King’s Men. The reasons for why Jonson sold
Collecting Thomas Kyd: A Conversation with Darren Freebury-Jones
Episode 212: For today’s guest episode it is a warm welcome back to the podcast for Darren Freebury Jones. On this occasion Darren is here to discuss Thomas Kyd and the works that have been attributed to him in a new two-volume edition of h
All’s Well That Ends Well: ‘The Web of Our Life is of a Mingled Yarn’
Episode 211: Through the last few episodes on Shakespeare’s plays, we seem to have seen a playwright in a serious mood, even when he was writing comedies. ‘Twelfth Night’ and ‘Measure For Measure’ are often referred to as having an autumnal
What’s in a Name? A Conversation with Susan Amussen
Episode 210: In her new book ‘What’s in a name? How historians know Shakespeare was Shakespeare’ Susan Ammunsen sets out to show how that in early modern England it was entirely possible that a glover’s son could transform into a successful
