Episodes
June 8, 2025
Love’s Labour’s Lost: ‘Assist Me, Some Extemporal God of Rhyme’
Episode 172: Following on from 'The Merry Wives of Windsor' the refined courtly comedy that is ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’ might seem quite unrelated, but both plays are, in their own way, concerned with the use and abuse of langu...
June 1, 2025
Shakespeare in the Restoration: A Conversation with Stephen Watkins
Episode 171: For today’s guest episode it is a warm welcome to Stephen Watkins who is going to take us a little way forward in the timeline to the world of Restoration England where after fourteen years of closures theatres w...
May 25, 2025
The Merry Wives of Windsor:‘Wives May be Merry and Yet Honest Too’
Episode 170: Falstaff returns in Shakespeare's city comedy set in the countryside. 'The Merry Wives of Windsor' has been popular since it's first performance but remains something of an outlier in the cannon. The dating of t...
May 18, 2025
Performing Medieval Theatre: A Conversation with Kyle Thomas
Episode 169 A welcome return for Kyle Thomas to the podcast where we discussed Kyle’s work on preparing three of the York Cycle plays for performance this summer in Toronto. As you will hear Kule is part of a team that are g...
May 11, 2025
Henry IV Part 2: ‘We Have Heard the Chimes at Midnight’
Episode 168: Although Shakespeare's completion of the events of Henry IV’s reign is very much a continuation of the story from part one it is a play with a very different vibe. The vigour of the battle scenes and the exubera...
May 4, 2025
The Origins of Medieval Theatre: A Conversation with Kyle Thomas
Episode 167 A conversation with Kyle Thomas where we discussed the long transition period between Roman theatre and medieval theatre. As you may remember from my episodes on the medieval theatre this is a very opaque period ...
April 27, 2025
Henry IV Part 1: ‘Nothing Can Seem Foul to Those Who Win’
Episode 166: As with 'Richard II' 'Henry IV part 1' handles some complex English history as it examines the relationships between the King, his son and the powerful Percy family. After the deposition of Richard II Henry rule...
April 20, 2025
Shakespeare’s Tutor: A Conversation with Darren Freebury-Jones
Episode 165 In today’s guest episode it is a very welcome return to the podcast for Darren Freebury-Jones. Darren appeared previously to discuss his book ‘Shakespeare’s Borrowed Feathers’ and I asked him back on this occasio...
April 13, 2025
The Merchant of Venice: ‘The Quality of Mercy is not Strained’
Episode 164 Fate, as in Romeo and Juliet, plays a large part in ‘The Merchant of Venice’, as do deep seated grudges, but these are more societal than familial. We are still in Italy, but no longer in close knit Verona, but m...
April 6, 2025
A Statue in Verona: The Afterlife of Romeo and Juliet
Episode 163 My background reading while preparing the episode on Romeo and Juliet took me to many stories about and thoughts on the afterlife of the play and its continuing influence on western culture, what follows is just a...
March 30, 2025
Romeo and Juliet:‘These violent delights have violent ends.’
Episode 162 In today’s episode I look at Shakespeare’s early tragedy and one of his enduringly popular plays ‘Romeo and Juliet’. The dating of the play The early printings of the play in quarto editions The origins of the sto...
March 23, 2025
Poor Naked Wretches: A Conversation with Stephen Unwin
Episode 161 In today’s guest episode I will be discussing Shakespeare’s characterisations of the lower classes and looking at the role they play with Stephen Unwin, who’s book ‘Poor Naked Wretches’ explores the variety of wor...
March 16, 2025
King John: ‘New Made Honour Doth Forget Men’s Names’
Episode 160 A synopsis of the play The sources and dating of the play The problems with a historical drama in verse The historical accuracy of the play King John as neither a hero nor anti-hero Philip the bastard as a central...
March 9, 2025
The Theatre Couple in Early Modern Italy: A Conversation with Serena Laiena
Episode 159 For today’s guest episode we are going back to the Italian renaissance theatre and the world of the Commedia Dell’arte. You will remember that I covered the Commedia and other early Italian theatre in season five...
March 3, 2025
Richard II: ‘Sad Stories of the Death of Kings’
Episode 158 Picking up the journey through Shakespeare's plays with 'Richard II' A brief summary of the play The early performance history of the play The early print history of the play The variations in the quarto editions ...
Feb. 24, 2025
Woke Shakespeare: A Conversation with Ian McCormick
In the fifth part of this short series of guest episodes before we get back to continuing the journey through the Shakespeare and Jonson cannon I had the chance to speak with Dr Ian McCormick about the collection of essays he...
Feb. 17, 2025
Trackers of Oxyrhincus: A Reprised Conversation with Jimmy Walters
In the fourth part of this short series of guest episodes before we get back to continuing the journey through the Shakespeare and Jonson cannon today’s episode is a repeat of episode 32 of the podcast, first released in late...
Feb. 10, 2025
Boy Actors: A Conversation with Roberta Barker
In the third part of this series of guest episodes before we get back to continuing the journey through the Shakespeare and Jonson cannon, we are going deep into the world of the renaissance period boy actors, or perhaps, as ...
Feb. 3, 2025
The Development of Roman Theatre: A Reprised Conversation with Dr Elodie Palliard
Episode 154 As you know form last week’s episode I’m running a short series of guest episodes before we get back to continuing the journey through the Shakespeare and Jonson cannon. Today’s episode is a repeat of episode 30 ...
Jan. 27, 2025
Playing with Shakespeare: A Conversation with Charles Moseley
Episode 153 Today’s guest episode serves as a great precursor to what is to come. The discussion that you are about to hear with Charles Mosely focusses on Shakespeare as a man of the theatre and discusses how the plays were...
Jan. 20, 2025
A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Conversation With Rachel Aanstad
Episode 152 Following on from my thoughts on A Midsummer Night’s Dream last time I’m very pleased to welcome back Rachel Aanstad to the podcast for further thoughts on the play. You may remember from our previous conversatio...
Jan. 13, 2025
A Midsummer Night’s Dream: ‘Man Is but An Ass If He Go About to Expound This Dream’
Episode 151 Having finished with Ben Jonson’s biography we can now go back in time just a little to work through Shakespeare’s and Jonson’s plays in more detail. By the early 1590s was then the man of the theatrical moment, ...
Jan. 6, 2025
A Bawdy Twelfth Night: A Conversation with Rachel Aanstad
Episode 150: For this very appropriately timed guest episode, which is released on the 6th January, Rachel Aanstad kindly agreed to come on the podcast and talk about the Elizabethan twelfth night traditions and Shakespeare’s...
Dec. 30, 2024
The Life of Ben Jonson Part Six: ‘Posterity Pays Every Man His Honour’
Episode 149 The life story of Ben Jonson concludes with events after the publication of his first folio to his death in 1637. ‘Bartholomew Fair’, a different sort of Jonson play. The finances of the court become more problema...