Not Another Shakespeare Podcast!

It's finally time for PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE!! This is a high-seas adventure ranging across the eastern Mediterranean, featuring not one, but two big storms, *actual pirates with actual lines* , and a young woman so aggressively virginal that she drives business away from her local brothel. In other words, perfect for the festive season. Our special guest for this episode is Dr Erin Julian....

Season 4 kicks off with Webster's dark (literally) Jacobean horror, THE DUCHESS OF MALFI. One of the few early seventeenth-century tragedies to remain popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, this alt-canon staple features creative poisoning methods, medicinal apricots, and lycanthropy (aka werewolf disease) -- but the heart of the story is a woman who knows what she wants out of li...

Join us as we wrap up the saga of Season 3 and see if James remembers anything we covered! We talk about the inclusion of Shakespeare movie adaptations and whether or not we should keep the misogynometer. Thanks for sticking with us! We now have a (free) patreon, come join us at https://www.patreon.com/NAShakespearePodcast

It’s been a long road, but we have finally come to our Season 3 finale: ‘TIS PITY SHE’S A WHORE! If you thought Hamlet was incestuous…buckle up, friends, because things are about to get weird. And do especially mind the content notes on this one. CONTENT NOTE This play and this episode depicts overt misogynist violence, including a graphic onstage murder. It also features blood and gore, including...

This episode in our At the Movies series, we’re tackling everyone’s favourite childhood trauma, THE LION KING! With very special guest Arezou Amin, we tackle what Matthew Broderick is doing in this movie, how Hamlet’s dad pales in comparison to Mufasa, and to what extent Disney atones for its sins in the sequel. CONTENT NOTE: The Lion King famously depicts the death of Mufasa by stampede, and his...

For once, a film we actually liked!! In this episode from our Shakespeare At the Movies series, we break down Feng Xiaogang’s 2006 wuxia Hamlet adaptation THE BANQUET (aka The Black Scorpion). James somehow connects this to the Loch Ness Monster, we envy Hamlet’s fancy hair bath, and there’s just a little too much incest for everyone’s comfort level. CONTENT NOTE This episode discusses the various...

We’re back with the second part of HAMLET, featuring our fantastic guest and VP of Merch Dr Emer McHugh! This time, Polonius is finally concise, the Ghost just wants to go to bed, Horatio and Hamlet somehow end up naked together (whoopsie, how did that happen??), and James gets salty about the lack of stage time for the pirates. With cameos from pelicans, sparrows, and a Danish seal. CONTENT NOTE:...

The time has come, dear friends. We can avoid the elephant in the room no longer. It’s Hamlet time. Join us and the fabulous Dr Emer McHugh on a two-part adventure through the tortured psyche of the Prince of Denmark and his mommy issues! Along the way we’ll discuss the friendliness of your average ghost, our fave celebrity breakups, and whether that cloud really is backed like a weasel. CONTENT N...

It’s summer, and everyone wants to be at the beach — including the cast of ROMEO AND JULIET: SEALED WITH A KISS. Yes, they are actual seals. Join Nora and James as we discuss this dubious animated classic, complete with a crab band, ham-fisted segregation metaphors, a very annoying fish, and royalty-free music. If you love this episode, follow us on  Twitter  and  Instagram  @NAShaxPodcast and sub...

Fun with fairies, true love, a beautiful wedding at the end… Oh, wait, I thought we were listing stuff that’s NOT in A Midsummer Night’s Dream? My bad. Nora and James get drunk and dunk on this perennial Shakespeare in the Park fave. CONTENT NOTE: this play includes and this episode discusses involuntary intoxication, forced marriage with death threats attached, sexual assault and violence, and ra...

We are back with a brand-new episode on Shakespeare’s weird little play ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL!! Today, we’re asking the important questions: Can your haemorrhoids give you a hernia? What rhymes with Nantucket? And do we really have to feel bad for Bertram? Diana, Roman goddess of rectums makes a surprise appearance in this, Shakespeare’s most morally grey comedy. If you love this episode, foll...

Just a quick check in from Nora to explain where we've been.

It’s time for a dubious holiday (& world cup) special, a movie that has aged like pint of ice cream, our first Shakespeare film adaptation: SHE’S THE MAN!    With apologies in advance to your early ‘aughts nostalgia, we dive into this Amanda Bynes and Channing Tatum classic. As is tradition, the high school characters are played by actors clearly approaching 30, the Shakespeare appro...

We kick off Season 3 with two households, both alike in dignity. That’s right friends, it’s ROMEO AND JULIET time! Follow along as we discuss Juliet’s concerning youth, Queen Mab’s nut wagon, and James’s sauce obsession.    We’re changing our release schedule to one episode per month this season, to keep the podcast sustainable. Thanks for sticking with us!    CONTENT NOTE: Thi...

Our Middleton Mid-Season (finally) concludes with our fan’s choice: WOMEN BEWARE WOMEN!  Join us on this wild ride of infidelity, incest, murder, and mayhem, which of course is all the fault of the pesky women and nothing to do with the men involved. Not at all. Not even one little bit. Come for the naughty chess puns; stay for the…*checks notes*…burning gold??    Content Note: this...

Hi! Did you miss us?    We’re back with a bang, as our friend Dr Brandi K. Adam’s joins us to tackle Thomas Middleton’s iconic city comedy A CHASTE MAID IN CHEAPSIDE! It’s got secret marriages and escaping daughters; it’s got meat babies and Puritans; it’s got Timoetheus AND his tutor; it’s even got all the mountains in Wales! Brandi’s mastery of Latin and Nintendo baddies alike comes in...

It’s our birthday!!! Not Another Shakespeare Podcast has been podding for a whole solar orbit, so in this episode we look back on season 2, rank our favourite plays so far, and preview some exciting future developments. Shoutouts for Brad Pitt’s butt in 2004, Disney princesses, sequels that are better than the original—and of course, James’s favourite characters, the lion and the bear. And towards...

We’re back!! After a brief hiatus, we’re returning with a bang to share our take on TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, featuring special guest Charlene V. Smith! Tune in for reminiscences about TROY (2004), bizarrely over-invested uncles, and objectively the weirdest ending in the canon.    CONTENT NOTE: This play contains depictions of sexual assault and implied coercion, as well as wartime violence...

We’re back for the second part of our holiday special, returning to TWELFTH NIGHT just in time for, well, Twelfth Night! Topsy-turvy twin shenanigans continue, with guest appearances by John Donne, the Backstreet Boys, and the Hallmark Christmas cinematic universe. Literally everyone gets married at the end. What’s more festive than that?? If you love this episode, follow us on social media @NASha...

In the first part of our epic Christmas special, James rejects the play title (again), we debate the merits of meat-flavoured crisps/chips, and a barrage of festive movie references are made. How many of these people will be married by the end? Let’s be honest—probably all of them. If you love this episode, follow us on social media @NAShaxPodcast and subscribe to get notified about new episodes!

Bohemian sea coasts, bad disguises, and offstage deaths, oh my! It’s THE WINTER’S TALE! In yet another case of James feeling betrayed by a play title, The Winter’s Tale is a magical story with ghosts, bears, and long-lost princesses — but it’s not set in winter. Featuring Gerard Butler and 300, and precisely how many biscuits we’d serve the Queen if she came to tea. If you love this episode, follo...

Step aside, Billy Shakes — it’s your buddy J. Fletch’s day to shine! This week we’re washing out the bad taste the Taming left in our mouths with John Fletcher’s semi-sequel THE WOMAN’S PRIZE aka THE TAMER TAMED. We detour to 80s British children’s TV stars, Bill & Ted, and Chumbawumba. Did Fletcher really do it better? Listen to find out!    Content Note: Be aware that this play (an...

On today’s episode, we’re drinking wine to help us get through Shakespeare’s domestic violence comedy, The Taming of the Shrew! We detour to water voles and garden pests, James loses track of who’s who, and we test the limits of the misogynometer.    Content note: Be aware that this episode (and this play) touches on domestic / intimate partner violence, gaslighting and coercive control....

“Let not the world witches or devils condemn / They follow us, and then we follow them.” Along with witches, devils, murders and Morris dancing, our spooky Halloween special features a list of James’s favourite witches, the only Dog Nora doesn’t love, a woman disguised as a boy (of course), and some casual bigamy. If you love this episode, follow us on social media @NAShaxPodcast and subscribe to...

What do Mean Girls, James Bond, and baguettes all have to do with Richard II? Join James, Nora, and special guest Dr Ambereen Dadabhoy to find out! We’ve got scheming uncles, familiar castles, and improbable timelines galore in our first foray into Shakespeare’s history plays.    Ambereen is an Associate Professor of Literature at Harvey Mudd College. Her research focuses on racial and r...