The History Of European Theatre

Episode 223:  Last time, in the first part of my look at ‘Macbeth’, I took you through the plot of the play and discussed the themes of ambition and guilt in it, with a focus on the character of Macbeth himself.  I also looked at some of the language in the play and at the possibility that Thomas Middleton updated it for a revival in the 1610s or 1620s, and how he probably developed...

Episode 222: We can’t say for sure that ‘Macbeth’ was Shakespeare's next offering after 'Anthony and Cleopatra' as precise dating of these early 17th century plays is next to impossible, but whatever the case, it certainly has a very different feel and focus from it’s near contemporises.  Although recounting historical events it is dominated by the presence and effect of the superna...

Episode 221: Last time I took you into the world of the court masque with the help of Kristen Macdermott who, I think you will agree, painted a very detailed picture of that very particular theatrical form and the way the Stuart court embraced it.  As we heard, masques were often written by playwrights and performed by actors who also wrote for and performed in the public playhouse, so i...

Episode 220:  This is the second part of my conversation with Kristen McDermott about the court masque.  In this part we discuss two masques and the later history of the art form. Kristen McDermott is professor of English at Central Michigan University and co-author with Ari Berk of ‘William Shakespeare his life and times’ and the collection ‘Masques of Difference’, as well as numer...

Episode 219: In this episode I take a look at the court masques of the Jacobean period.  To do this I’m very lucky to have the guidance of Kristen McDermott who edited and wrote an extensive introduction to a collection of Jonson’s Masques called Masques of Difference.  It is a volume that has been in print for an impressive twenty years and one that I found immensely useful in...

Episode 218: Last time I looked at the first part of ‘King Lear’ from the opening scene where Lear makes his disastrous decision to split his kingdom between his children, through to the renowned scene where the ex-king and his fool are caught in a raging storm on the moor and saved only by the loyalty of Kent.  On the way I looked at the deliciously evil Edmund, the poor judgement of hi...

Episode 217: ‘King Lear’, the play that is now often regarded as Shakespeare’s finest and deepest work is most often compared to the other two great tragedies of this period in Shakespeare’s writing, ‘Hamlet’ and ‘Othello’, and of course there are thematic comparisons that can be made with those plays, but it has to be pointed out that ‘King Lear’ is also a very different play in tone and structur...

Episode 216:   For today’s guest episode I had the pleasure of talking to Steve Sohmer, author of a book titled ‘Reading Shakespeare’s Mind’.  In his book Steve examines how Shakespeare’s relationship with several contemporary authors is exposed in his plays.  This involves a very close reading of the text and an endlessly enquiring mind and it’s fascinating to read throug...

Episode 215: Last time Ben Jonson regained his stride in the public theatre with his comedy ‘Volpone’, an at moments sparkling satire of greed and avarice.   Just about the only parallel I can draw between this and Shakespeare’s next offering, ‘Timon of Athens’, is that the study of greed appears in both, but they are very different plays in tone, character and intent.  Sh...

Episode 214: For today’s guest episode I was pleased to get the chance to talk to Rob Eastaway, author of a book all about Shakespeare and his relationship to numbers and mathematics. Rob’s book ‘Much Ado About Numbers’ is a very entertaining read, whatever your level of understanding maths might be and quite an eye opener when considering how much maths permeates into Shakespeare’s plays.&nb...

Episode 213: In the spring of 1606, a new Ben Jonson play premiered, not on this occasion at the Blackfriars theatre performed by one of the child companies, but at the Globe and performed by the King’s Men.  The reasons for why Jonson sold his play to the King’s Men are not completely clear.  Having a play performed by the Kings Men was, of course, prestigious in itself, and s...

Episode 212: For today’s guest episode it is a warm welcome back to the podcast for Darren Freebury Jones.  On this occasion Darren is here to discuss Thomas Kyd and the works that have been attributed to him in a new two-volume edition of his collected works, for which Darren is the associate editor.  It is always a pleasure to talk to Darren and as a friend of the podcast he...

Episode 211: Through the last few episodes on Shakespeare’s plays, we seem to have seen a playwright in a serious mood, even when he was writing comedies. ‘Twelfth Night’ and ‘Measure For Measure’ are often referred to as having an autumnal tone, something serious underlying the comedy and of course we also have the even darker worlds of the tragedies of ‘Hamlet’ and ‘Othello’.  The next...

Episode 210: In her new book ‘What’s in a name? How historians know Shakespeare was Shakespeare’ Susan Ammunsen sets out to show how that in early modern England it was entirely possible that a glover’s son could transform into a successful actor and playwright.  She does so by detailing a society that was in a moment of flux and opportunity in many aspects of life.  It is a co...

Episode 209:  After the failure of ‘Sejanus His Fall’ Jonson’s next play was a collaboration with John Marston and George Chapman, a new play for the Blackfriars’s theatre and it’s resident company of boy actors.  Jonson maybe needed the collaboration to restore his confidence in his writing, although from what we know of his character perhaps more likely it was the hope of a decent...

Episode 207: It was just about this time last year I talked to Roberta Barker about her work on the boy actors of the Elizabethan period and she mentioned at the time that she was then working on a new edition of ‘Measure for Measure’ for Cambridge University Press and I’m pleased to say that she agreed to carve some time out of her busy schedule to discuss the play with us today.  Havin...

Hello everyone I’m interrupting your day for a small announcement about the podcast.  If you have listened to any episodes recently you will have noticed that advertisements are now playing at the start, middle and end each episode.  Placing advertisements in the podcast is a way of helping to recoup the costs of putting the podcast out for free, which is why I took the plunge...

Episode 207  Whereas the larger-than-life characters in ‘Othello’ left us with no moral ambiguities, but plenty of questions about the nature of the outsider and society’s attitude towards those who are different.  Shakespeare’s next offering, ‘Measure for Measure’ was a very different piece with few of those certainties. The dating and earliest performance of the play The early pri...

Episode 206 Last time I discussed the dating and sources for Shakespeare’s tragedy ‘Othello’, the early performance history, and some points about the structure and poetry in the play.  Then I took you through the first part of the play, up to the point where Iago had managed to sow seeds of doubt into Othello’s mind about the constancy of women and get his professional rival Michael Cas...

Episode 205: Last time Ben Jonson’s retelling of a slice of Roman Imperial history failed to impress at the Globe theatre.  As an actor in that play Shakespeare had first-hand experience of the way the audience in the theatre could turn on the poet and the players alike, but it is difficult to think that his confidence in his own work was much dented by the experience.  His nex...

Episode 204: For today’s guest episode we welcome Robert Crighton to the podcast.  Robert is the guiding light behind ‘Beyond Shakespeare’ a project that aims to shine a light on very early theatre through to Early Modern theatre.  As the name ‘Beyond Shakespeare’ suggests Robert is keen to look at plays not written by Shakespeare and indeed, as you will hear, much of Robert’s...

Episode 203:  We now stay in the world of the Elizabethan interpretation of classical history and myth with Ben Jonson’s next play ‘Sejanus His Fall’.  Rooted more firmly in history than myth Jonson’s play uses the story of a power struggle motivated by personal ambition to look at the nature of power, justice and politics.  This was quite evidently dangerous ground for a...

Episode 202: For today’s guest episode it is a very warm welcome back to Racheal Aanstad.  You will remember that Racheal and I have discussed Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s Dream on the podcast and now she returns to discuss ‘Troilus and Cressida’. As you will hear Racheal was able to bring thoughts about the history of the play and it’s sources, particularly Homer’s Iliad, which...

Episode 201 ‘Troilus and Cressida’, is a challenging piece by pretty much everybody’s estimation.  Although it is no surprise that Shakespeare looked to the Homeric tales for his next inspiration which part of that story he chose to dramatize perhaps is and what he chose to do with it has perplexed commentators ever since.  Ambiguous is the word most often used, but ultimately...

Episode 200 For today’s guest episode it is a welcome return to the podcast for Stephen Unwin.  I spoke to Stephen earlier in this Shakespeare and Jonson season to discuss his book ‘Poor Naked Wretches’ which examines the way Shakespeare portrayed working people and their significance in the plays.  For his next published work Stephen has produced a work that examines Berthold...