'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…
Featured in episode 123: The History of New Place Here 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…
Featured in episode 61: For the Money: The Medieval Commercial Theatre Ever wondered what a medieval play script looks like? This image is a page from the script for ‘Mystere des Trois Doms’. This play was produced in 1509 at Roma…
Featured in episode 58: The Castle of Perseverance The first thing to note is that this image is orientated with north towards the bottom of the page, the reverse of how the cardinal points of the compass are usually shown in Northern Hemisphere so…
Featured in episode 58: The Castle of Perseverance The first image features ideas about how ‘The Castle of Perseverance might have been presented. As I discussed in the Podcast episode there are plenty of ideas about how this might have worke…
The South Theatre in the town of Jerash was built between 81 and 96 CE. The theatre, which is in a relatively good state of preservation, could seat up to five thousand spectators. The stage is in the classic Roman design with the three doors. The t…
No trip to Jordan is complete without a visit to Petra. Beyond the tourist hotspot of the Treasury Building is a long valley surrounded on either side by funerary monuments and other buildings. Tucked into the side of the valley, about half a kilome…
Shimla, in the foothills of the Himalayas, was the summer capital of the British Raj in India. The Gaiety theatre, designed by Henry Irwin, opened in May 1887. Originally the theatre was part of a complex of new buildings, but when subsidence was di…
The partial ruins of the Greek period theatre in Taormina, are from an expansion undertaken in the 2nd Century and is the second largest of its kind in Sicily (after the theatre of Syracuse). Most of the original seating has been lost, but the wall …
The Greek theatre on the hills above Syracuse could date from as early as the 5th Century BCE. Sicily appears to have been a centre for dramatic productions, perhaps only being behind the Athenian festivals in order of importance. Better records evi…
In May 2023 I took myself off to London to see as many of the First Folio copies that were on display as part of the celebrations of the 400th anniversary of the printing of the First Folio. This is a pictorial record of the day to accompany the p…
Valenciennes passion play of 1547 illustration by Hubert Cailleau Featured in episode 53: Medieval Stage Effects Hubert Cailleau was a stage designer and miniaturist working in the town at the time and he made sketches of the stage designs and the…
The Martyrdom of St Apollonia by Jean Fouquet (c.1420 – 1481. Painted c1452. Featured in episode 52: Medieval Rehearsal and Performance. Jean Fouquet was a French painter and miniaturist working in the mid-fourteen hundreds and one of his wo…
Near to the ancient Greek theatre of Syracuse is a limestone cave known as ‘The Ear of Dionysius’. The name was given by the painter Michelangelo da Caravaggio (1571-1610), who heard the legend that local tyrant Dionysius 1st (432-367 BC…
Built in the first century the Roman amphitheater in Verona is still used for opera productions. When I visited in June 2010 the site was being set up with scenery and large props dotted around the outside of the walls. Judging from the Egyptian sty…
A visit to Verona will include a stop at ‘Juliet’s Balcony’ and statue. It’s nothing but a ploy, and a rather kitsch one at that, to attract tourists, but has to be admired for it’s success. Both times I have been there…
The programme from the Castle Theatre production of ‘Men Were Deceivers Ever’ by Marivaux in translation and adaptation by my Grandfather, Vivian Rowe. It is interesting to see the prices, which seem very low by today’s standards. …
This modern version of Salome by Oscar Wilde presented by Lazarus Theatre at the Southwark Playhouse features in a bonus episode on the main podcast. It was an exhilarating evening of theatre where we also had an opportunity to hear the actors thoug…
As featured in episode 54: The Home of the Cycle Plays: York, Chester, Coventry and Wakefield. Released 19th July 2021 This list represents the cycle plays as they were presented in the third quarter of the fifteenth century. The Bakers – Th…
There is no theatrical connection to Rosslyn Chapel, near Edinburgh, but when I was there recently it really struck a chord with everything that I had been talking about on the podcast recently. The chapel was founded in 1446, so right in the heart…
Last Monday night marked a return to the theatre for me, socially distanced and masked it’s true, but I had the privilege of doing it in the company of Sir Ian McKellen and his fellow cast members who have taken up residence in my local theatr…