Welcome to The History of European Theatre Podcast Website and thanks for joining me through millennia of theatrical history.

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 about the social. political and historical context that fostered the creation of dramatic art.This podcast u...

Episodes

View all

May 3, 2020

Trailer

An introduction to The History Of European Theatre Podcast

Listen to the Episode

May 3, 2020

Prologue and Pre History

Episode 1 An Introduction to the podcast and your host. Pre-history and how the urge to mimic and present might have been the start of theatre. Religious ritual and Shamanism. The Abydos Passion play and the Egyptian Book of ...

Listen to the Episode

May 11, 2020

Dionysus and the beginning of Greek Theatre

Episode 2 An overview of the history of Greece to the 5th Century BCE including Minoan and Mycenaean periods, the Greek dark age and the rise of the city state. The development of the religious festivals and their main featur...

Listen to the Episode

May 18, 2020

The Place Of Seeing

Episode 3 The vocabulary of the theatre we inherit from the Greeks The layout of the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens and it's main features Developments in the theatre over time The Chorus Stage Machinery Masks and costume The ...

Listen to the Episode

May 25, 2020

Aeschylus: The First Tragedies

Episode 4 The situation of Athens at the time of the first extant tragedies. The very earliest dramatists and the little we know of them The life of Aeschylus including his service in the Persian Wars His earliest surviving p...

Listen to the Episode

June 1, 2020

The Oresteia part 1

Episode 5 A detailed review of Agamemnon, the first part of The Oresteia trilogy by Aeschylus

Listen to the Episode

June 8, 2020

The Oresteia part 2

Episode 6 A detailed review of The Libation Bearers and Eumenides, the second and third part of The Oresteia trilogy by Aeschylus

Listen to the Episode

June 15, 2020

Sophocles: That Charming Man

Episode 7 The life of Sophocles almost spanned the 5th Century BCE and included events from the defeat of the Persian invasion to the relentless grind of the Peloponnesian wars. We look at his life and times and get an overvi...

Listen to the Episode

June 22, 2020

Antigone: Nomos Vs Physis

Episode 8 A detailed look at the first of the Theban plays by Sophocles. Greek drama gets personal as the end of a great family drama is acted out, but it's also a political debate as Sophocles questions what happens when man...

Listen to the Episode

June 29, 2020

Let’s Talk About Oedipus

Episode 9 We travel back into the heart of the Oedipus myth with Sophocles' interpretation of this dark story. Seen by many as his greatest work it is a dark tale of unwitting patricide and incest that relentlessly leads to t...

Listen to the Episode

July 6, 2020

Oedipus at Colonus: Death of a Hero?

Episode 10 The story of the death of Oedipus was Sophocles' last work and puts the role of the Greek hero into a new light. We travel to Colonus, the home town of the playwright, to see the end of Oedipus' troubled life.

Listen to the Episode

July 13, 2020

Euripides: An Outspoken Life

Episode 11 A summary of the life and times of Euripides, the youngest and most daring of the three great Greek tragedians, but who suffered from a mixed reception in his own time.

Listen to the Episode

View all Episodes

Recent Blog Posts

March 23, 2026

Podcast Announcement 16th March 2026 - Advertisments

A small announcement about the podcast. If you have listened to any episodes recently you will have noticed that advertisements are now playing at the start, middle and end each episode. Placing advertisements in the podcast is a way of…

Read the Blog Post

Sept. 16, 2024

The Peacham Drawing: Titus Andronicus

'Titus Andronicus' is notable for being the subject of the only contemporary illustration of a Shakespeare play. Known as the Peacham drawing, and currently in the Library at Longleat House in Wiltshire, the seat of the Marquis of Bath, the dr…

Read the Blog Post

July 7, 2024

New Place, Stratford-Upon-Avon

Featured in episode 123: The History of New PlaceHere are three images to help you visualize Shakespeare’s house in Stratford-Upon-Avon, New Place.The first is a view of the site as it stands today. The side of the house you can see i…

Read the Blog Post

View all posts

About the Host

Philip Rowe