The History Of European Theatre
Philip Rowe
A more or less chronological history of the development and practice of theatre
- 41 minutes 53 secondsWhy did Shakespeare write ‘Troilus and Cressida’?: A Conversation with Rachel Aanstad
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, I think, really enhances our understanding of this challenging play.
Rachel Aanstad is a writer, artist, historian, and Shakespeare nerd with an MFA in theatre. She is the former Artistic Director of the Rose City Shakespeare Company and the author of A Bawdy Twelfth Night or What You Will Encyclopaedia & Dramaturgical Handbook and A Midsummer Night’s Dream Illustrated Handbook and Encyclopaedia. She lives in the Pacific Northwest from where I spoke to her over a zoom call.
Link to Shakespeare and Friends on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Shakespeareandfriends
Link to A Bawdy Twelfth Night UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Encyclopedia-Dramaturgical-Shakespearean-Encyclopedias-Handbooks/dp/B0BT2DZGTK/ref=sr_1_1
Link to A Bawdy Twelfth Night USA: https://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Dramaturgical-Shakespearean-Encyclopedias-Handbooks/dp/B0BT2DZGTK/ref=sr_1_1
Link to Midsummer Nights Dream UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Midsummer-Nights-Illustrated-Handbook-Encyclopedia/dp/B09PKSTL1S
Link to Midsummer Nights Dream USA: https://www.amazon.com/Midsummer-Nights-Illustrated-Handbook-Encyclopedia/dp/B09PKSTL1S
Link to Marquee TV RSC Production: https://marquee.tv/videos/royal-shakespeare-troilus-cressida
Support the podcast at:
www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com
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26 January 2026, 6:30 am - 37 minutes 13 secondsTroilus and Cressida: ‘Men prize the thing ungained more than it is’
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 opinions range through ‘failure’ to ‘misunderstood’ to ‘modernistic’, and just about everything else in-between.
The early print history and dating of the play
The confusion caused by the two quarto versions and the First Folio version
The source material for the play
A brief synopsis of the play
‘Troilus and Cressida’ as a ‘problem play’
The Prologue
The play as an ensemble piece
The ignoble nature of the characters in the play
Cassandra as the voice of truth
Troilus and his view of Cressida
Is there a parallel with Romeo and Juliet?
The portrayal of Achilles and Hector
Ulysses and the ‘great chain of being’ argument
Was the play written for the Inns of Court?
Pandarus and the bitter ending to the play explained
The critical reception of the play
The performance history of the play
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www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com
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19 January 2026, 6:30 am - 43 minutes 16 secondsShakespeare and Brecht: A Conversation with Stephen Unwin
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 Brecht’s lifelong obsession with Shakespeare and which makes the case for reading the two playwrights together. This is part of the Arden Performance Companion series so is slanted towards practical suggestions about how performance of Shakespeare can be achieved through Brechtian techniques.
Link to Stephen’s website: www.stephenunwin.uk
Link to online retailers for ‘Shakespeare and Brecht’:
Bloomsbury UK: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/shakespeare-and-brecht-9781350419612/
Bloomsbury US: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/shakespeare-and-brecht-9781350419636/
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Shakespeare-Brecht-Practical-Performance-Companions/dp/1350419613/ref=sr_1_1
Support the podcast at:
www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com
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12 January 2026, 6:30 am - 35 minutes 40 secondsTwelfth Night: ‘Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the sun: it shines everywhere’
Episode 199:
The line I have used for the title of today’s episode is spoken by Feste the fool, a central character in ‘Twelfth Night’. Fools have already played significant roles in Shakespeare’s previous plays and as you will hear there are possible connections between them and Feste, but significant as he is, and fools will be in forthcoming Shakespeare plays, there is so much more to Twelfth Night than just that one character. It is a play where other Shakespearean comedic characteristics also feature – identical twins, empowered and quick-witted women, variants on the braggart soldier character, and an exotic, virtually mystical, setting, spring to mind. If ever there was a comedy where Shakespeare was completely in his stride then this, for me, is the one.
The early performance history of the play
The dating of the play
The early print history of the play
The sources for the play
The establishing of social roles in the play
The positions of the knights Sir Toby and Sir Andrew
The role of Feste, the fool.
The impact of Feste’s songs
Feste as a portrait of Thomas Nashe
The centrality of Malvolio to the themes of the play
Feste’s sung epilogue to the play
Love, desire and infatuation in the play
The play as a knowingly theatrical story
The performance history of the play
Some of the critical reaction to the play
Link to Rachel Aanstad’s ‘A Bawdy Twelfth Night’ for UK customers:
Link to Rachel Aanstad’s ‘A Bawdy Twelfth Night’ for US customers:
Support the podcast at:
www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com
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5 January 2026, 6:30 am - 34 minutes 1 secondThe Poetaster: ‘Good Ignorance, I’m Glad Thou Art Gone’
Episode 198:
As Ben Jonson was writing ‘The Poetaster’ in 1601 the Elizabethan age was drawing to a close. Elizabeth would live until March 1603, but by 1601 any hope of a natural heir was long past and her court and councillors were playing a waiting game and with different degrees of secrecy were trying to manipulate the situation over the accession to their own advantage. Jonson, I’m sure, had an eye and an ear on those politics, but the comedy he was writing was more concerned with the politics of the theatre than those in the court. In the previous episode on ‘Cynthia’s Revels’ and in my episodes on Thomas Dekker, that you can still find on the podcast archive, I have touched on ‘the war of the poets’ and this episode on ‘The Poetaster’ will bring these matters to a close. Although it’s not essential you might find listening to those earlier episodes useful, if you have not done so already, before listening to this one.
The early performance of the play and it’s place in the ‘war of the poets’
The print history of the play
The theme of the role of the poet
A short synopsis of the play
The caricature of John Marston
The Poetaster and Satiromastix
The feud as fuelled by the rivalry between playing troupes
The poet as councillor and companion to the monarch
The exposing of the poetasters
The change in title
Reference to the Essex rebellion
The attempted censoring of the play
The epilogue
The end of the ‘Poetomachia’
Support the podcast at:
www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com
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22 December 2025, 5:50 am - 40 minutes 27 secondsIllustrated Tudors: A Conversation with Simon Sandys Winsch
Episode 197:
For today’s guest episode I had the pleasure of talking to Simon Sandys Winsch, author of the Illustrated Tudor Dictionary. Given Simon’s broad knowledge of the period I took the opportunity to talk to him about some of the entries in the dictionary that give us a view of what life was like for the Elizabethan’s who went to the London theatres. We started by going back a few years into the reign of Henry 8th and discussed actions of his, the legacy of which the Elizabethans were still living with which led onto conversations about some of the struggles of the ordinary Elizabethan life.
Simon Sandys Winsch graduated from Aberystwyth university with a degree in History and international politics and then became a history teacher working in various schools. It was during that career that he realised the importance of knowing topics in depth as well as the need to keep lessons informative and interesting as possible and he now puts those skills to use in writing history books.
Link to the Tudor Illustrated Dictionary on Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Illustrated-Tudor-Dictionary-Simon-Sandys-Winsch/dp/1036101983/ref=sr_1_1?
Link to the Tudor Illustrated Dictionary on Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Tudor-Dictionary-Simon-Sandys-Winsch/dp/1036101983/ref=sr_1_1?
Support the podcast at:
www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com
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15 December 2025, 6:00 am - 36 minutes 37 secondsCynthia’s Revels: ‘O That Joy So Soon Should Waste’
Episode 196:
The origins of the play written for the court and the Children of the Chaple playing company
Why this type of play is a fit for the child playing troupes
The print history of the play
A brief synopsis of the play
Myth, Satire and Masque - the complexities with getting an understanding of the play
The minor role of plot compared to words and music in the play
The performance style of the boy playing companies compared to the adult companies
The verbal sketching of characters as part of the satiric intent
The play as part of the battle of the poets
Unpicking the satiric portraits in the play
The introduction of the Poetaster
The masque and it’s role in the play
Jonson’s coded support for the Earl of Essex in the play
Early responses to the play and the longer historical view
Link to European Review of History Podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/european-review-of-history-podcast/id1695812614
Support the podcast at:
www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com
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8 December 2025, 6:00 am - 33 minutes 26 secondsPlaying Polonius: A Conversation with Colin David Reese
Episode 195
Last time I completed my review of ‘Hamlet’, although it is probably wrong to say that one’s thoughts on Hamlet are ever complete. I am not alone in finding that every time I see the play, and it is I think, as it is for many, the Shakespeare play I have seen most often, I find something new in it to think on. To complete this quartet of episodes on the play we have the second part of my conversation with Colin David Reese about the play and in this segment, which is much shorter than the previous conversation, we focussed on the character of Polonius, although as you will near Colin also brought in other thoughts generated by the play and his knowledge of other Shakespeare plays. I certainly was not expecting to hear about ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ in the context of this conversation, but I’m glad we went there and it just illustrates how any Shakespeare conversation can lead you to all sorts of places.
Before we get to Colin’s thoughts, I thought I would share with you some of the views of the play and Polonius from critics and commentators from the past. This is, of course, a tiny selection given the vast amount that has been written about Hamlet, but they are pieces that I have come across and found particularly interesting. If this piques your interest in Shakespeare criticism through time I have produced a series on that very subject for members on Patreon where I traced criticism and praise for Shakespeare from the praise poems in the First Folio to the 19th century romantics. To find out more about that just pop over to the website or to patreon.com.
John Dryden
Samuel Jonson
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
William Hazlitt
A C Bradley
Colin Dave Reese on Polonius
Colin’s Website and access to ‘Shakespeare Unbound: A Gift to the Future’: https://shakespeareunbound.org
Support the podcast at:
www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com
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17 November 2025, 6:30 am - 34 minutes 36 secondsHamlet Part 2: ‘Something is Rotten in the State of Denmark’
Episode 194:
Last time I left things hanging for Hamlet as, having seen the ghost of his father and resolved on revenge, he had seen his planning go awry as he mistakenly killed the old councillor Polonius while he hid behind a wall hanging. We have seen his daughter Ophelia begin her descent into madness, school friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern become embroiled in Hamlet’s feigned madness and Claudius prompted into a desire to pray, having seen the players perform a piece that replicated his actions in the matter of his brother’s murder.
That quick summary in no way does the play any sort of justice so please do listen to the previous two episodes on ‘Hamlet’, my look at the first half of the play and my conversation with Colin David Reese about the language in the play, if you have not done so already. I’ll be here waiting for you when you get back.
Continuing a summary of the play picking up from the murder of Polonius, with Hamlet leaving and dragging the body behind him.
The Character of Gertrude
The female characters and the players who portrayed them
The rise of boy playing troupes reflected in ‘Hamlet’
The political position of Claudius in the Danish nation
The character of Osric and his role in the play
The themes of death and decay
The character and actions of Hamlet
Hamlet as a tragic hero
The graveyard scene
A brief overview of the performance history of the play
Support the podcast at:
www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com
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10 November 2025, 6:30 am - 56 minutes 41 secondsSpeaking Hamlet: A Conversation with Colin David Reese
Episode 193
For today’s guest episode it is a very welcome return to the podcast for Colin David Reese, who I last spoke to in early 2023, when we discussed his play ‘Shakespeare Unbound: A Gift to the Future’ and Shakespeare in general. If you missed those episodes you will find them as part of season five, first released in February and April 2023.
On this occasion I asked Colin to discuss Shakespeare’s use of language, with particular reference to Hamlet, and how that language is used to create character. Colin goes in some depth into two of Hamlet’s most famous speeches from the play, so, although it is not essential you might find it useful to have a copy of the speeches to hand to follow along. You will need ‘To be or not to be’, from Act three scene one and ‘O what a rogue and peasant slave am I’ from act two scene two. We also spoke about the differences between the quarto and folio versions of the play with examples of the language from them, and as this have become a long, but very richly detailed episode, I have split it into two and will share the part dealing with characterisation and particularly Polonius after my second episode discussing the play.
Colin David Reese has not only a lifetime of acting experience behind him, but a lifetime of Shakespeare study too. That started in his family life where his actor father had a Shakespeare quote for every occasion and continued with his first professional engagement when aged twelve, he played Shakespeare’s illegitimate son. Along with his many acting roles he has run his own acting company and undertaken in depth study of Shakespeare and the Commedia Dell’arte
Link to RSC To Be Or Not to Be sketch on YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEs8rK5Cqt8
Link to Colin's website: https://shakespeareunbound.org
Support the podcast at:
www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com
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3 November 2025, 6:00 am - 36 minutes 45 secondsHamlet Part 1: ‘That One May Smile and Smile and Be a Villain’
Episode 192:
And so, we come to perhaps the biggest challenge in all of Shakespeare's work, ‘The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark’. Over the next two episodes and a special guest episode I hope I can get close to doing this monumental play justice.
The dating of the play and the complication of the ‘ur-Hamlet’
The early print history of the play and the three versions
The possible sources for the play
The opening of the play
The character and significance of Fortinbras
The character of Polonius
The ghost of Hamlet’s father and the responsibility of revenge
The position and character of Ophelia
Ophelia and the meaning of flowers
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern – appearances and honesty
The players and their play as an insight to acting genres and techniques of the time
The success of ‘The Murger of Gonzago’
The centrality and irony of Claudius at prayer
Hamlet, Gertrude and the ghost
Part two of this review of ‘Hamlet’ will follow as episode 194 (season 6 episode 81)
Support the podcast at:
www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com
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