The Bicks Pod

There were lots of ways we could have looked at the topic of Shakespeare's most famous plays. A deeply analytical examination of what makes some plays rise above others. A detailed case study of a single play, like Romeo & Juliet or Hamlet, that has remained popular over the years. Or even a dismissal of the very idea of popularity. Instead, we decided on a listicle format. What can we say? We've...

Macbeth may be Shakespeare's second most famous play after Hamlet, and for good measure. The speeches and quotes have been seared into English-speaking culture, the phrase "Lady Macbeth" denotes all sorts of things (depending on your point of view), and it may be our most durable parable for the dangers of too much ambition. It's also one of Shakespeare's shortest plays (and the shortest tragedy),...

It is natural to wonder what Shakespeare was trying to tell us about money. He was, after all, the owner of his own theatre company, a man who made several wise financial decisions involving his land holdings in his later years. He’d grown up around money. Surely we can read into his plays and discover something of the business acumen and economic philosophy of the man, right? Maybe. Maybe not. Al...

One of Shakespeare's lesser-known plays, Timon of Athens (aka "How to Make Friends and Alienate People") may not be his most engaging yarn -- being co-authored by Thomas Middleton strikes your humble podcasters as one potential reason why -- but that doesn't mean that it can't be relatable and interesting, or that it won't resonate with modern life. On the contrary! A story about an uber-wealthy m...

Who has three daughters, two thumbs, and one inheritance to distribute? That guy! *pointing at King Lear* That simple premise becomes the source for one of Shakespeare's most well known and tragic plays. It's also a strangely unsatisfying journey into family dysfunction and moral dilemma, so join us as we chat about the characters, themes, and structure underpinning the tragic history of King Lear...

This is a very special episode dedicated to the era most near and dear to (at least one of) us: the 90s. It was an era that kicked off with parachute pants and Kurt Cobain, and ended with Friends at the top of the ratings chart and Beyoncé still a member of Destiny's Child. In-between there were a whole lot of Shakespeare movies, so we gathered together to ask a few questions. We were joined in th...

Another one of Shakespeare's problem plays, All's Well That Ends Well doesn't really, well... end well. It's a play deeply concerned about gender norms, sex, and lies, with some interesting characters who - like those in other problem plays - defy the typical conventions we usually associate with Shakespeare's better known figures. We talk about these themes and the characters that lay trapped wit...

Shakespeare's ability to write convincing human emotions is one of the reasons why he remains such a popular playwright to this day. His works explore what it truly means to be human -- warts and all. And the warts are what we're talking about in today's episode, in which we take a look at the roots of jealousy in Shakespeare's plays.  From the murderous rage of Othello to the living room comedy o...

Jealousy, sex, revenge, racism and outcasts - Othello is a play brimming with emotional themes and characters swayed by those same emotions. We discuss all these themes, try to place them within a bit of context, then discuss how they interact as we look into one of Shakespeare's most beloved and troubling tragedies. Notes: As is often the case, Folger's essay, " Othello: A Modern Perspective " gi...

While it's certainly possible to do Shakespeare without any hint of comedy (and lord knows we've seen a few productions, especially on film, that lean that way), it's also possible to have Shakespeare plays that get the audience rolling in the aisles. This episode we talk all about Shakespeare's comedy - not the comedies, but the sense of humour and jokes that have kept people laughing for 400 yea...

While many of Shakespeare's plays are talked about as being timeless, most of them are in fact very grounded in the specificities of Elizabethan and Jacobean England and the larger European renaissance. Measure for Measure is no different, but because of the topics on display, as well as how little our society has actually changed around those topics, the themes of female sexuality, religion and p...

In 1996 Joni Mitchell released two compilation albums - Hits and the appropriately contrapuntal Misses - to show how even the most well-regarded of artists occasionally creates something that never really finds the audiences they might deserve. When it comes to Shakespeare, the Bard had a number of stinkers in his repertoire, including ones we've already covered like Henry VI (parts 1 & 3 especial...

Troilus and Cressida is one of Shakespeare's least popular, least performed plays, and there are a multitude of reasons why that might be. None of the characters are particularly likeable. The various plots are mercenary, cruel, and violent. And it's certainly not the easiest play to classify, and it has baffled scholars since Shakespearean scholars first emerged: it is absolutely one of Shakespea...

Shakespeare may have penned some of the most memorable characters, from Shylock to Hamlet to King Lear, but he's also shown up as a character himself over the years. This episode we are looking at a different kind of Shakespeare, the man created for the screen (both big and small), and the various tropes and modes of interpretation that show up over and over again. We look to have fun with a chara...

One of Shakespeare's better loved comedies, Twelfth Night brings the gender-bending of Merchant of Venice and Two Gentlemen of Verona together with the love-as-illness of Romeo & Juliet, then stirs everything together with a sense of carnival-esque revelry. Join us for a discussion about love, class, gender, and justice as we look over the characters and conundrums of this thoroughly enjoyable pla...

What do a bunch of 400 year old plays have to tell us about mental health? A surprising bit actually. This episode we're looking at four character - Jaques from As You Like It, Hamlet and Ophelia from Hamlet, and Lady Macbeth from Macbeth - to consider how Shakespeare handled issues of mental health, how his audience would have understood these characters' issues, and how we understand and talk ab...

Hamlet is arguably the first of Shakespeare's "Big Plays" -- the magnificent tragedies, the ones that everyone studies in their English classes, that hold a special place in the canon because of their thematic and dramatic importance. Oh, sure, we've covered Richard III and Romeo & Juliet and The Merchant of Venice already; no one is denying the importance and vibrancy of these and other earlier p...

Preamble: As mentioned in the episode itself, we recorded this episode using Nvidia's Broadcast app for the first time to try and cut down on background noise. Our first tests went fine but this episode wound up coming across as a bit choppy and digitized. Our apologies - we'll be looking to smooth things out for future episodes! Have you ever wished you (or someone else) could vanish into thin ai...

Sometimes, you really can judge a book by its cover, or even, just by its title. That's the case for this Shakespearean comedy, which tips it's hat in all sorts of directions without ever proceeding down any of them. It's a befuddling, funny, serious, ridiculous, gender-bending and gender-conforming play with a whole lot to say about nothing at all. As You Like It, is open to interpretation and no...

We live in a politically-charged age -- how can anyone deny that? But it's likely true that there has never been an age that hasn't been touched by politics at all, whether by the formal politics of our various governmental systems or the personal politics of our daily interactions; Aristotle himself claimed that human beings are inherently political creatures, and the wars and elections of the la...

Power, politics, ambition, and honour. Four human facets set across the backdrop of a failing Republic. Is Julius Caesar the most topical play to talk about on November 3, 2020? Yes, but we swear we didn't plan it that way - sometimes the stars simply align. We talked about the characters and their foibles, the historical factors that fed into the play, and Shakespeare's decision to avoid easy ans...

What goes on behind the scenes to run a full-scale Shakespeare festival? How are the plays selected? How long does it take? How much does it cost? This episode we found out the answers to all these questions with the delightful help of Freewill Shakespeare Festival, the Bicks' very own local Shakespeare show that's been running for just over 30 years! We were so very lucky to be joined this episod...

Henry V is one of Shakespeare's grandest and most legendary plays, partly because it depicts the stunning historical victories of one of England's greatest kings, but also because Shakespeare skillfully weaves so many universal themes into the events of this play. From masculinity and warfare and what makes a great king to death and the loyalty of friends, Shakespeare takes what is essentially not...

Why is it so easy to buy trinkets and knick-knacks with the face of an English poet who's been dead for 400 years? More importantly, why are we so willing to buy them? Those questions are the crux of what we're getting to in this week's podcast: the Shakespeare economy. We take a dive through the fundamental questions around selling art in the modern capitalist world: How do value art? Who benefit...

Merry wives, jealous husbands, faeries and a wedding! This play - rumored to be written at the behest of Queen Elizabeth herself - is a comedy unlike any of the others in Shakespeare's repertoire. An almost proto-restoration play about class, fidelity, and trust, it's a forward looking play that retains the very serious ability to make us laugh. This week we talk about the themes, comedy, and char...