Hamlet – Rhetoric
In an unprecedented second episode on a play, Sheldrake examines the linguistic DNA of Hamlet and finds three rhetorical techniques that per...
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Podcasts – Sheldrake on Shakespeare
Episodes
20 of 50 episodesRichard III – Queen Margaret
In an episode dedicated to a great Shakespearean, Mr John Branston, Sheldrake drifts slightly from the one-play-one-idea tagline to focus on...
Special: Interview with RADA ex-Head of Voice Robert Price
Few people in the world will have spent as many hours working on the delivery and performance of Shakespeare as Robert Price. After a career...
Hamlet – Is anything original?
In the first of two episodes on this mightiest of plays, Sheldrake compares the plot of Shakespeare’s Hamlet with its sources, uncovering a...
A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Why so popular?
In his return to the airwaves, Sheldrake considers the extraordinary popularity of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and concludes that it is the da...
Henry V – The Play, The Myth, The Legend
Henry V: one of the most patriotic characters and plays in all of literature, surely? Not so, says Sheldrake. Henry V and his world are thor...
Henry IV Part 2 – Learning to Play
How did people learn to act in the Renaissance? Did the texts themselves co-operate in teaching newish actors how to do certain things? Shel...
Henry IV, Part 1 – History and Personality
What to say about Henry IV Part 1? In the first of three main episodes, each of which will tackle one play in this Henriad, Sheldrake explor...
Short SoS – Teaching Shakespeare
He claims no monopoly on wisdom in this area, but as an academic year draws to a close and the long vacation heaves into view, Sheldrake ref...
Troilus and Cressida – Shakespeare’s Ugliest Play
We associate Shakespeare with humanity, warmth, generosity and kindness when he writes about people who have made a wrong decision. Even Ric...
Short SoS -Shakespeare and Evil
Thanks to a couple of nearby anniversaries, we are hearing more than ever not only what great theatre Shakespeare is, but also what a positi...
The Tempest – Infinite Variety
The Tempest is a difficult play to nail down. It is also the most reinterpreted and adapted of Shakespeare’s plays. In this episode, Sheldra...
Short SoS – Sheldrake on Jonson
Ben Jonson. Rival or friend of Shakespeare? Grumpy old bore or stout moralist? In a typical cop-out, Sheldrake thinks both caricatures are t...
The Merchant of Venice – Is it worth it?
We seem to spend much of our lives asking whether things are worth it. Are they worth the money, the time, the effort? Are we getting value...
Second Thoughts about Measure for Measure @ RADA
A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to be leading a seminar at RADA on Measure for Measure. In preparing for that seminar I found myself disa...
Othello – Perspective
It’s difficult to know what, and particularly who, to talk about in Othello. Iago is a distraction, Othello likes to inflate his own sense o...
Short SoS – Falstaff Again
Falstaff will exceed the bounds of whatever box you try to put him in, a truth I found out for myself in the last Short Sheldrake on Shakesp...
Twelfth Night – Play on
Twelfth Night seems to be everyone’s favourite Shakespeare play. Why is this the case? Could it be something to do with the fact that it is...
Short SoS – Why is Falstaff so popular?
Sir John Falstaff is a river who has burst his banks. He has taken on a life beyond Shakespeare’s plays and become a myth in his own right....
King Lear and Service
King Lear is a work of obvious genius, so what to say about it in fifteen minutes that can illuminate it? Using the historical idea of servi...