Shakespeare in Shoreditch: A Conversation with Benjamin Blyth
Episode 237:
When we think of Elizabethan theatre buildings the wooden open-air theatres The Globe and the Rose usually grab all the attention so I was pleased to find that a new book was coming out with the focus very much of the earlier Curtain Theatre and I was privileged to be given early access to read it. I was even happier when author Benjamin Blyth agreed to discuss the book with me for the podcast.
As you will know from our pervious conversation Benjamin has a close association with the Shoreditch area of London and is an experienced theatre maker as well as an academic, so I had high expectations for this new work and I can certainly say it does not disappoint and the picture Benjamin paints of life in and around the Curtain and the plays that were produced there is absolutely fascinating.
Benjamin Blyth is a lecturer of Medieval and Early Modern Literature at St. Mary’s University and the University of Calgary. A scholar-practitioner with ten years’ experience directing Shakespeare around the world, Ben specialises in site-specificity and practice-as-research. His work has appeared in critical articles for Early Theatre, Shakespeare Bulletin, and Miranda; and his book Site-Specific Shakespeare was published by Cambridge University Press in 2026. His doctrinal monograph ‘Shakespeare In Shoreditch’ will be published in January 2027.
I spoke to Ben from his writing retreat in the Western Isles of Scotland over a zoom call.
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/shakespeare-in-shoreditch-9781350564060/
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