Episodes

  • Episode 145:


    Continuing the story of Ben Jonson’s life from the point where just as he starts to make his mark in the theatre scene everything goes very badly wrong for him.


    ‘The Isle of Dogs’ at the Swan Theatre

    The closure of the London Theatres

    Jonson in prison

    How the London theatres reopened

    The Swan and Pembroke’s Men

    Speculation on the content of ‘The Isle of Dogs’

    Jonson’s other early work for the theatre

    Jonson and the Lord Chamberlin’s Men

    Jonson’s duel with Gabriel Spencer

    Jonson in prison again

    The conversion to Catholicism

    Jonson’s trial and taking ‘the benefit of the clergy’


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  • Episode 144: 


    On several occasions through the story of the renaissance theatre I have touched on how the players made use of cue sheets rather than full scripts as they rehearsed and performed plays, so I was fascinated to see that there is a company of actors working today who produce plays by Shakespeare and other renaissance playwrights using cue sheets.  Although we don’t have documentary evidence about exactly how they were used at the time and therefore how the rehearsal process worked, what better way to get an understanding of how they might have been used and what impact they had on productions than to produce plays using them and work through the practical issues and artistic choices that become involved.  


    Shake-Scene Shakespeare have produced work for live and on-line presentation since 2017 and continue to do so today, so I was very pleased when Lizzie Conrad-Hughes, founder, company Director and book holder for the company agreed to come and talk about the experience of producing cue-based theatre for a modern audience.


    https://www.shake-sceneshakespeare.co.uk/


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  • Episode 143:


    The second part of the life of Ben Jonson takes him from his birth, through his years at school and onto working as a bricklayer.  He then briefly joined the army before returning to become a player, a poet and a playwright.


    Jonson’s Scottish ancestry.

    His father’s loss of position under queen Mary.

    His Stepfather Robert Brett, bricklayer.

    Life for the Brett/Jonson family on Christopher Lane

    Jonson’s education at Westminster school.

    Theatre at the Westminster School.

    The influence of school master William Camden.

    Jonson the bricklayer’s apprentice.

    Jonson briefly attends Cambridge university – maybe.

    Jonson the soldier and his service in the war in the Netherlands.

    The Lord Mayor’s procession and the involvement of the Guild companies

    Jonson’s contribution to the Lord Mayor’s procession.

    Jonson the player for Pembroke’s men.


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  • Episode 142


    Dr Natália Pikli discusses the changing view of the 'The Shrew' in Medieval and Early Modern European culture and how women are represented in Shakespeare's early comedies,


    She then goes on to outline how Shakespeare became part of national Hungarian culture and how the plays have been treated in translation.


    Dr Natália Pikli is Associate Professor at the Department of English Studies, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. She teaches medieval and early modern culture and literature and is Head of the relevant PhD Program. She also teaches contemporary popular culture, as well as theatre history and theatre reviewing for students majoring in Theatre Studies. She has published extensively on Shakespeare, early modern popular culture, theatre, iconography, and on the reception of Shakespeare in our days, with a focus on contemporary theatre. Her book chapters and articles appeared in, for instance,  Shakespearean Criticism (Thomson-Gale, 2004), Shakespeare's Others in 21st-century European Performance (Bloomsbury, 2021), and in academic journals: European Journal of English Studies, Journal of Early Modern Studies (Florence) Shakespeare Survey (Cambridge), Theatralia (Brno). She (co-)edited five books and is the author of two monographs, The Prism of Laughter: Shakespeare’s ’very tragical mirth’ (VDM Verlag, 2009) and Shakespeare’s Hobby-Horse and Early Modern Popular Culture (Routledge, 2022). In her free time, she directs amateur student performances and writes theatre reviews.


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  • Episode 141:


    In this episode I set us up for a look at the life of Ben Johnson discussing some of the sources for information about his life and how far we can trust them – it’s complicated.


    Jonson’s 1618 visit to Scotland and why he might have undertaken the journey on foot. 

    His conversations with Drummond of Hawthornden.

    Jonson’s opinions on other writers as reported by Drummond and thoughts on their validity.

    Descriptions of Jonson by Aubery and Dekker.

    The Johnson portrait.

    How Johnson might have revealed himself in his work.

    How his poems appear to be self-referencing but may not be as straightforward as they seem.

    How his plays possibly include some self-revealing aspects.

    Admiration of Johnson as equal to, or greater than, Shakespeare.

    The modern reader and the problems with Jonson. 


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  • In October 2023 the story of the discovery of a stage floor that dated from before the Elizabethan period in St George’s Guildhall in Kings Lynn hit the news.  The attrition to the headline writers was the fact that that very stage had probably supported Shakespeare as he acted as part of a playing troupe on stage.  Of course, that is a great hook for the story as the interest in Shakespeare goes well beyond those of us immersed in the history of theatre and the idea that we can still share a space like that across four hundred years is a beguiling one.  I remember standing on the original floor of Anne Hathaway’s cottage in Stratford Upon Avon and feeling a very similar thrill, but there is much more to the story of St George’s Guild Hall at King’s Lynn, a venue for theatre for not just four hundred years, but at least six hundred, making it the UK’s oldest working theatre.  So, I was very pleased when Tim Fitzhigham, Creative Director of the Guildhall Theatre agreed to come onto the podcast and talk about St George’s Guildhall and that stage.


    Tim Fitzhigham is the Borough Council of Kings Lynn and West Norfolk Creative Director appointed to oversee the revival of St George’s Guildhall.  As well as leading this extensive project he is currently completing his PhD on Robert Armin, an actor in The King’s Men who originated many of the clown and fool roles in all but the earliest Shakespeare plays and was a well-known playwright and author in his own right.


    Links to the St George's Guildhall Website


    https://stgeorgesguildhall.com


    and Instagram Account

    https://www.instagram.com/stg.guildhall/ 


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  • Episode 139:


    Last time ‘Two Gentlemen of Verona’ gave us a look at second comedy from Shakespeare’s early phase as a playwright.  As you heard certain elements in the plotting of the play and execution of its denouement make it problematic, but nevertheless it showed early promise.  The lyrical nature of much of the language used in that play is quite typical of the earliest comedies and it is probably not coincidental that this was around the time that Shakespeare was writing his long lyrical poem ‘Venus and Adonis’, so we might assume that his mindset at the time was that of a lyrical poet, and maybe we see that influence still in his probable next work, the much more accomplished play ‘The Comedy of Errors’, which has remained one of the more popular Shakespeare comedies since its first performance.  


    The Source for the play and changes Shakespeare made to it

    The original text of the play

    The dating and earliest performances of the play

    Foul Papers

    The setting as a Roman street with three houses

    A Synopsis of the play

    The serious and long opening exposition.

    The importance of a dramatic opening scene

    Social commentary in the play

    Adriana as a well-developed character for a light-hearted farce

    Antipholus of Ephesus as an unpleasant character, but toned down from the source material

    Antipholus of Syracuse as a more sympathetic character

    The punishment of the Dromio twins

    The view of authority in the play

    The problems with the plot (if we take it too seriously)

    The soliloquies of Antipholus of Syracuse

    Luciana and the expression of the value of tradition

    What should we read into the very ending of the play?


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  • Episode 138:


    Over the course of speaking about English Renaissance Plays and Shakespeare I have had cause to mention the play ‘A Knack to Know a Knave’ several times.  Most latterly because it is thought to include references to ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ and ‘Titus Andronicus’ and prior to that, in the season on the Early Renaissance Theatre it had a mention as one of the plays performed at the Rose Playhouse as recorded in Henslowe’s Diary.  Having been reminded of it while writing about the early Shakespeare plays I thought that it deserved a little time in the spotlight on it’s own as it gives us a little snapshot of the plays, and particularly comedies other than Shakespeare and Jonson, that was circulating at the time of the earliest of Shakespeare’s plays.  So, here is a little interlude of an episode all about ‘A Knack to Know a Knave’.


    A quick word on ‘Shakespeare’s Borrowed Feathers’ by Darren Feebury-Jones, which is published in October 2024 and on Henry Porter and his possible involvement with ‘Dr Faustus’.


    The performances of ‘A Knack to Know a Knave’ as reported in Henslowe’s Diary

    The mystery of the low takings for repeated performances in a second run of the play

    The printed quarto edition of the play

    A summary of the plot

    The (possibly) missing parts of the play, including Kempe’s extemporising

    How the fools of Gotham folk tale is worked into the play

    The allusions to other plays in the text

    The final lines of the play


    If you would like to read the text of A Knack to Know a Knave, you can find it on google books here


     


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  • Episode 137:


    The dating of the play

    Printing in the First Folio

    The sources for the play and the nature of the text

    A brief synopsis of the play

    The major themes of the play

    How the status and youth of Valentine and Proteus helps to understand their actions in the play

    The role of Speed and how the play features the embryo of Shakespearean wordplay

    The role and values of Lance, and Crab the dog, as a comparison to Proteus

    Some well-regarded verse from the play

    Different readings of the theme of love

    The problematic rape and forgiveness scene

    The play as a courtly romance

    The play as a parody of past cultural norms

    Is the text more corrupt than is generally thought?

    How our understanding of male relationships at the time might affect our view of the play

    The performance history of the play


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  • Episode 136:


    Having given you my own thoughts on ‘Titus Andronicus’ last time I’m pleased to say that for this special guest episode I was able to take the discussion even further with Eleanor Conlon, a fellow podcaster and a theatre professional as you will hear Eleanor has a lot to say about the play and insights that, in some cases, go in different directions from what I was able to say about the play.


    Eleanor Conlon is an actor, director, and award-winning writer based in Sussex.


    After completing her BA in English Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London, Eleanor earned her MA in Shakespeare and Early Modern Drama at Kings College and Shakespeare’s Globe. While at The Globe, Eleanor worked dramaturgically on productions by Dominic Dromgoole Matthew Dunster and Jeremy Herrin, and with Jenny Tiramani on the Original Practices Costume Archive.


    After achieving success with her theatre company The Barefoot Players in the late 2000s and early 2010s, with which she produced plays including Tis Pity She’s a Whore, Doctor Faustus and The Alchemist, the latter two of which she also directed, as well as productions of several of Shakespeare’s works, plays by Ibsen, Oscar Wilde, and others, she founded her current and much acclaimed theatre company Rust & Stardust.


    Writing over a dozen plays rooted in English folklore, Eleanor has worked with her puppet-maker partner Katie Sommers to tour Rust & Stardust’s shows all over the UK, including their plays The Wild Man of Orford, Black Shuck, The Marsh Demons of Iken, and Doctor Dee’s Daughter and the Philosopher’s with celebrated recorder quartet Palisander.

    In addition to recent adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays including The Tempest and Macbeth with Trinity Theatre in Tunbridge Wells, in 2023 she launched the Three Ravens Podcast with her partner Martin Vaux – also a writer and actor – which explores history, legends, and diverse aspects of folk culture.

    Featuring original stories each week based on the lore of England’s 39 historic counties, Three Ravens quickly rose into the Top 1% of podcasts globally. It currently sits in the Top 50 UK Fiction Podcasts, with 4.9/5 star ratings on iTunes, Apple Podcasts and Spotify and a passionate fanbase across social media.


    For Three Ravens contact:


    Website: https://www.threeravenspodcast.com


    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/threeravenspodcast/


    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/threeravenspodcast


    X: @threeravenspod


    For Rust + Stardust Theatre

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eleanorstardust/


    Website: https://www.rustandstardust.co.uk


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  • Episode 135:


    Is Shakespeare’s early tragedy more than just a gore-fest?

    The first performance of the play, maybe

    The three playing troupes involved with the play

    Is the play a collaboration with George Peele?

    The popularity of violence in plays

    The sources for the play

    A brief summary of the play

    The establishing of characters in the first act

    The justifications for Titus’ desire for revenge

    The role of young Lucius

    The flaw in Titus’ character that leads to tragedy

    Family life as represented in the play

    The contrasts drawn between Lavinia and Tamora

    The portrayal of fatherhood in the play

    The use of Ovid’s ‘Metamorphosis’

    Shakespeare’s use of personification, borrowed from medieval morality plays

    The extreme violence in the play

    The Peacham Drawing


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  • A short word from my good podcasting friend Peter Schmitz, he of the ‘Adventures In Theatre History Philadelphia’ podcast, who has written a book on that very subject and I’m sure that it will be as informative, as amusing and generally as fascinating as his podcast episodes always are.  What is even better is that Peter has produced a short audio that gives you all the information you need about the book and how you can get hold of it. These links might be useful:


    https://www.brooklinebooks.com/9781955041379/adventures-in-theater-history-philadelphia/


    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adventures-Theater-History-Peter-Schmitz/dp/1955041377/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1FQHNN2ZJG5SE&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.8oSl8huLrCxYxe1gR-WgMTKb62F56xPJLXJ49C4eLW52Njy6h53qTfk_QyAlISrCS1nBtjE5fP18rp_sk3gIYoPR7RAWKCe1UItqgZQpd-9PXkMqKB8ftKvQb9JhK0iqaMPdFPSCfo8AyM-8tvFcwNkejTFM0ThPPZlfC0KousFlD-3ZYd4wH6TjhApBJSBVy125ksgHOGMFVNkzSDVWzIz0g_2hLt5zWxDV81pmrfs.pPMmYdPY47WYuKoK1DNaM-yz5JQz_DXXrrqyiIMM2Zg&dib_tag=se&keywords=adventures+in+theatre+history&qid=1726229400&sprefix=adventures+in+theatre+history%2Caps%2C83&sr=8-1


    https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Theater-History-Peter-Schmitz/dp/1955041377/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3CNUES6XNBNLW&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.IxlWUqR1nThHNR-GNJvuEjIo6f36mo82bS9_8A4Sx2PBGFys45ykLfXSgWrSIMpHJ0mn7qGooCMBFwWMv2nZqMK8rKgLgx9kTpDPQhHmqxigZbGPTyZ83Q5H5P2GQscDk4bNo7HYgM_9jXyO9EXcBSn0HZEqFpQmV_RWMmCXUSL4ld_Z22rnfxbih_CgyVUrMPqutRrwuii1_Hxe1fxx4hszZpQbw9dLxGUkrYUu2-Q.lr0Eg8P1HNDd9nfK-0DQttltOiAQaSpi0unC8HFtmZg&dib_tag=se&keywords=adventures+in+theater+history+philadelphia&qid=1726229447&sprefix=adventures+in+theatre+history+%2Caps%2C140&sr=8-1


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  • Episode 134:


    Author Jem Bloomfield joins us to talk about his recently published book, ‘Allusion in Detective Fiction’, which looks at how and why allusion to Shakespeare and the Bible was used by the masters, or I should say mistresses, of golden age detective fiction.  This may not seem like an obvious area when considering the pervasive influence of Shakespeare, but as you will here the connections that Jem has made can tell us a lot about how knowledge and use of Shakespeare is constantly changing.


    Warning – Spoilers present!

    Jem discusses major plot points of several classic detective novels, but we thought that they can hardly be counted as spoilers up to about a century after they were first published, but you have been warned.


    Link to Jem's book on the publishers website:

    https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-58339-1

     


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  • Episode 133: 


    The complications with dating the play and it’s relationship with a similar Elizabethan play

    The sources for the play

    A short summary of the play

    The Christopher Sly framing device

    Switching of roles in the play

    The disguise motif

    The motivations of the leading characters

    The implication of the falconry images in the play

    The Elizabethan idea of a proper wife and correct behaviour

    Similarities with Elizabethan ‘wife taming’ ballads

    The play as an inheritor of Roman comedy

    The protagonists as stock characters

    Katherine’s imbalance of the humours

    Are Petruchio and Katherine a matched couple?

    Do the three marriages resolve the play?

    Does the play make a serious point about gender relationships in Elizabethan England?

    The ‘difficult’ final speech by Katherine


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  • Episode 132


    My thoughts on seeing a recent production of Richard 3rd at Shakespeare's Globe, starring Michelle Terry in the titular role. The production and the cotrovercy that surrounded it raises questions about gender fluid casting, the nature of leadership and the casting of able bodied actors in this famous portrayal of deformity.


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  • Episode 131: Richard 3rd: ‘And Thus I Clothe My Naked Villainy.’


    Shakespeare dramatises the life of the last Plantagenet king and create one of theatre's most spectacular villains.

     

    The dating of the play

    The quarto editions of the play

    When is a history play a tragedy, or not?

    The sources of the play

    The influence of Seneca

    Other contemporary versions of the Richard 3rd story.

    The centrality of the character of Richard

    A brief plot summary

    The boldness of Richard’s actions

    Richard as prologue and then guide in the play

    Lady Anne and her reaction to Richard’s proposal

    The influence of Marlowe on Richard 3rd

    The role of the female characters in the play

    How should we view the presence of Margaret in the play?

    The curses and prophecy of Margaret

    How deformity and old age can be seen to link Richard and Margaret

    Richard afflicted by guilt

    The theatricality of the play

    Does our liking for Richard affect the morality of the play

    What the lay can tell us about players and changes in Tudor society


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  • Episode 130:


    Mathew Morris talk to me about the archaeological dig that resulted in the discovery of the final remains of Richard 3rd, which serves as a prelude to the next episode which will be all about Shakespeare’s take on the final Yorkist king.  Towards the end of our conversation, we spoke about the differences between the Richard of the play and what the skeletal remains that were uncovered tell us about the real-life king, but most of the conversation is about how the remains were discovered, recovered for analysis, and how they were proved to be the remains of Richard 3rd.


    Mathew Morris is a Project Officer at the University of Leicester Archaeological Service with over a decade of archaeological experience, having excavated a wide range of rural and urban archaeology across the Midlands, from the prehistoric period through to the Second World War.  His specialisms include urban archaeology, community archaeology and Roman and medieval archaeology.


    Mathew graduated from the University of Leicester in 2003 with a BA in Archaeology and an MA in Landscape Studies, joining ULAS in 2004.  Notable projects include a massive multi-period urban excavation at Highcross in Leicester that included excavation of Roman town houses, commercial buildings, two lost medieval churches and medieval cemeteries and a Roman cemetery  at Western Road in Leicester, and, of course in 2012 he directed the successful archaeological search for the lost grave of King Richard III.  Recently, he has been digging up more Roman buildings and mosaics in Leicester, at the former Southgates Bus Depot and All Saints' Brewery sites and is currently leading the archaeological work for the Leicester Cathedral Revealed project.


    He has co-authored the most comprehensive book ever written on the archaeology of Leicester - 'Life in Roman and Medieval Leicester' (2021) and three popular archaeology books: 'Visions of Ancient Leicester' (2011), 'Richard III: The King under the Car Park' (2013) and 'Roman Leicester: Life in the Roman World' (2018). He is actively involved in promoting archaeology to the general public, regularly providing talks to local societies, and is a Committee member of the Leicestershire Fieldworkers, and a Branch Leader for the Leicestershire Young Archaeologists’ Club.  He also currently leads the Castle Hill Community Archaeology Dig and the Bosworth Links Community Dig.


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  • Episode 129:


    A brief recap on the dating and sources of the play

    A brief synopsis of the play

    The problem of multiple battlefield scenes and the depiction of violence

    How language in the play is used to underline the changing fortunes of the two sides.

    The depth of strong characterisation in the play

    Warwick, the would-be kingmaker

    Henry as an early humanist

    Fathers and sons at war with each other

    The revenge motive running through the play

    A brief recap on the role and character of Margaret

    The development of the character of Richard

    The question of the extent if Richard’s deformity

    Did the play resonate with the contemporary audience?


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  • Episode 128:

    Author John Taplin discusses researching the Stratford families of Shakespeare's time and particularly the ancestry of John Hall, Shakespeare's son-in-law.

    John Taplin spent the majority of his career in management in the telecommunications industry until 2001 when he joined the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust at Hall’s Croft and Nash’s House/New Place in Stratford-upon-Avon, until retiring in 2010. A historian, genealogist and biographer, he has published articles on Shakespeare, his contemporaries and associates in and around Stratford, including the families directly associated with New Place.

    Shakespeare’s Stratford home, before and after Shakespeare’s lifetime. In 2011 he published his book Shakespeare’s Country Families - A Documentary Guide to Shakespeare’s Country Society. He was a member of the Advisory Board for the Trust’s Dig for Shakespeare project at New Place between 2010-2015, and in 2018 he published a revised and updated edition of his 2011book. He has a Masters degree in historical studies from the University of Leicester.

    Links to John's ebook:

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Twenty-first-Century-Shakespeare-Gleanings-Taplin-ebook/dp/B0CC633JY2/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.UlnFY8UInwIYfhuJf0AiXmtXTQSRHcN9Ativ9cOIX_PGjHj071QN20LucGBJIEps.4xAoLuO1JQQ2o0LumK9U_Hjq703MON6NOQVolv2BSr4&dib_tag=se&qid=1721225584&refinements=p_27%3AJohn+Taplin&s=digital-text&sr=1-1&text=John+Taplin

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  • Episode 127:

    A recap of Henry VI part one and the potential involvement of Christopher Marlowe

    A word on methods of authorship attribution in the context of Shakespeare and Marlowe

    The dating and sources of the play

    A synopsis of Henry VI part two

    The characterisation of the War of the Roses

    The decline of England mapped out in the play

    The main characters in the play

    The weakness of the king as portrayed in the play

    The powerplay between Gloucester, York and Margaret

    Margaret as a central character in the play

    The use of language to define different characters

    The contrast between Henry and Margaret

    The Jack Cade rebellion and the utopia of a classless society

    Gloucester and the view of justice-based government

    How the world depicted in the play might have been viewed by the first audiences

    The historical accuracy of the play

    The arrival of Richard, future king, on stage

    The performance history of the play

    Support the podcast at:

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