Why Shakespeare?

Listen to this conversation between Victoria & Emilia Hart recorded live in Waterstones Gower Street. Emilia is a British-Australian writer who studied English Literature and Law before working as a lawyer in Sydney and London. She is the author of the acclaimed debut novel 'Weyward,' an intergenerational tale weaving together the stories of three women across five centuries, exploring female...

This is a very special episode... and our first double-parter! The first part is an interview of emerging artist and acting student Tait Brennan. It is incredibly refreshing and inspiring to hear from a young person about what Shakespeare means to them and how his works are both a challenge and an inspiration. Victoria Gartner and Tait worked on several Shakespeare musicals together, so we talk ab...

My guest today is the actor Michael Maloney, now Patron of Bard in the Bookshop. Michael has played some of the biggest parts in the Shakespeare canon for the Royal Shakespeare Company (Hal, Edgar, Romeo, Hamlet... twice) and worked alongside giants like Peter Hall, Trevor Nunn and John Barton. On screen, he's a longtime Kenneth Branagh collaborator, appearing in Henry V , Hamlet , In the Bleak Mi...

My guest today is the theatre director Indiana Lown-Collins. Indiana is from Spain and moved to the UK later in life. She cut her teeth at the Guildford Shakespeare Company before becoming Resident Associate Director at Shakespeare's Globe. She is currently directing Love's Labour's Lost at the Globe, a production that fuses Shakespeare's language with flamenco, drawing on her own Spanish heritage...

Victoria's guest today is movement director Ayse Tashkiran, an associate artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Her credits include the RSC's 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'Othello' at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, 'Shakespeare in Love', and the stage adaptation of 'Hamnet'. We recorded this conversation over dinner in her beautiful home, we hope it proves as much of a feast for you as it was for us. Ay...

My guest today is Dr. Anjna Chouhan: scholar, writer, broadcaster, educator, and, for a number of years, my boss at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon where she was an in-house scholar for a decade, and where she developed a very successful and fun approach to adapting Shakespeare for younger audiences. Amongst other projects, she has co-hosted the podcast Shakespeare Alive fo...

This is a special one. I was completely star struck when I first met Katy Stephens in a rehearsal room for Agatha Christie’s 'And Then There Were None,' the show which brought us to China, where we recorded this podcast. Katy has not only worked at the Royal Shakespeare Company for many years – including as a very memorable Rosalind – she has performed at the Globe, playing many parts amongst whic...

My guest today is the legendary actor Terence Wilton. I will let you count all the incredible name drops he manages to do in this podcast by yourself, but suffice it to say… Terry was probably playing Shakespeare before you were born – certainly before I was born – and he is damn good at it. He has toured the world with the Bard, and gained infinite wisdom from it that he eloquently and passionate...

In this episode of Why Shakespeare? Victoria talks to Dr Will Tosh, the Head of Higher Education at Shakespeare's Globe, about his passion for Shakespeare and the history of playhouses but also about breeching, the sonnets, casting Shakespeare, Kings and their minions, which are some of the many topics in his book 'Straight Acting: The Many Queer Lives of William Shakespeare.' This episode was the...

In this episode, Victoria talks to acclaimed director Lucy Bailey about approaching Shakespeare as a director, her first experience of Shakespeare, directing at the Globe and the RSC and her specialist subject - Shakespeare and violence. The informal interview is recorded in Lucy's kitchen, with her two fluffy cats prowling around! We hope you enjoy listening.

Welcome to episode 4 of ‘Why Shakespeare’, a podcast in which I ask people why they like Shakespeare, why they devote their lives to it, why they learn it by heart and write books about it and donate a million pounds to the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust to restore one of its houses… Well, you will have guessed it – my guest today is a big, big Shakespeare fan. I was lucky to be able to work with th...

My guest for this episode is the actor Lucy Tregear. Lucy is a seasoned actor, voiceover artist and teacher whose work has taken her all over the globe. Together we talk about Shakespeare's sonnets, female roles in the canon, and why Shakespeare should not be mandatory in schools. Happy listening!

My guest today is the actor and writer Michael Begley. He has been acting for decades and has countless credits on the West End and in theatres across the country. He has been on television Doctor Who, Holby City, Casualty, Call the Midwife and EastEnders, for which he has also written several episodes, as Michael is a talented play and screen writer. I interviewed him in his dressing room in Xi’a...

My first guest is the actor Bob Barrett. You might know him from Holby City, but Bob is also a seasoned Shakespearean actor, notably with the company Propeller. He also appears in the movie Shakespeare In Love as George Bryan. I interviewed him in Theatre Royal Plymouth as we were touring together on And Then There Were None. This episode contains: swearing.