Episodes

Episode 201 ‘Troilus and Cressida’, is a challenging piece by pretty much everybody’s estimation. Although it is no surprise that Shakespeare looked to the Homeric tales for his next inspiration which part of that story he c...

Episode 202: For today’s guest episode it is a very warm welcome back to Racheal Aanstad. You will remember that Racheal and I have discussed Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s Dream on the podcast and now she returns to ...

Episode 203: We now stay in the world of the Elizabethan interpretation of classical history and myth with Ben Jonson’s next play ‘Sejanus His Fall’. Rooted more firmly in history than myth Jonson’s play uses the story of a ...

Episode 204: For today’s guest episode we welcome Robert Crighton to the podcast. Robert is the guiding light behind ‘Beyond Shakespeare’ a project that aims to shine a light on very early theatre through to Early Modern the...

Episode 205: Last time Ben Jonson’s retelling of a slice of Roman Imperial history failed to impress at the Globe theatre. As an actor in that play Shakespeare had first-hand experience of the way the audience in the theatre...

Episode 206 Last time I discussed the dating and sources for Shakespeare’s tragedy ‘Othello’, the early performance history, and some points about the structure and poetry in the play. Then I took you through the first part ...

Episode 207: Whereas the larger-than-life characters in ‘Othello’ left us with no moral ambiguities, but plenty of questions about the nature of the outsider and society’s attitude towards those who are different. Shakespear...

Hello everyone I’m interrupting your day for 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 e...

Episode 207: It was just about this time last year I talked to Roberta Barker about her work on the boy actors of the Elizabethan period and she mentioned at the time that she was then working on a new edition of ‘Measure for...

Episode 209: After the failure of ‘Sejanus His Fall’ Jonson’s next play was a collaboration with John Marston and George Chapman, a new play for the Blackfriars’s theatre and it’s resident company of boy actors. Jonson maybe ...

Episode 210: In her new book ‘What’s in a name? How historians know Shakespeare was Shakespeare’ Susan Ammunsen sets out to show how that in early modern England it was entirely possible that a glover’s son could transform in...

Episode 211: Through the last few episodes on Shakespeare’s plays, we seem to have seen a playwright in a serious mood, even when he was writing comedies. ‘Twelfth Night’ and ‘Measure For Measure’ are often referred to as hav...

Episode 212: For today’s guest episode it is a warm welcome back to the podcast for Darren Freebury Jones. On this occasion Darren is here to discuss Thomas Kyd and the works that have been attributed to him in a new two-volu...

Episode 213: In the spring of 1606, a new Ben Jonson play premiered, not on this occasion at the Blackfriars theatre performed by one of the child companies, but at the Globe and performed by the King’s Men. The reasons for w...

Episode 214: For today’s guest episode I was pleased to get the chance to talk to Rob Eastaway, author of a book all about Shakespeare and his relationship to numbers and mathematics. Rob’s book ‘Much Ado About Numbers’ is a ...

Episode 215: Last time Ben Jonson regained his stride in the public theatre with his comedy ‘Volpone’, an at moments sparkling satire of greed and avarice. Just about the only parallel I can draw between this and Shakespeare’...

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’. In his book Steve examines how Shakespeare’s relationship with several contemporary a...

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 two great tragedies of this period in Shakespeare’s writing, ‘Hamlet’ and ‘Othello’, a...

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 his kingdom between his children, through to the renowned scene where the ex-king and h...

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 Kristen McDermott who edited and wrote an extensive introduction to a collection of Jon...