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,...
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The History Of European Theatre
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...
Episodes
20 of 274 episodesIf 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...
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, bu...
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...
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...
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...
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’,...
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...
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 se...
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...
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 par...
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 ambit...
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 e...
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, painte...
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 a...
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 Kr...
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 hi...
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 t...
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’....
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 gre...