Episode 162

In today’s episode I look at Shakespeare’s early tragedy and one of his enduringly popular plays ‘Romeo and Juliet’.

The dating of the play

The early printings of the play in quarto editions

The origins of the story and Shakespeare’s direct sources

The opening chorus

Violence and the hand of fate underlying the action

The opening brawl and the threat of violence to women

The calming voice of women in the play

Romeo as a Petrarchan hero

Juliet as an innovative character who drives the plot

Romeo and Juliet’s shared sonnet

The motivations of Friar Lawrence and Juliet’s nurse

A brief performance history of the play

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Episode 161

In today’s guest episode I will be discussing Shakespeare’s characterisations of the lower classes and looking at the role they play with Stephen Unwin, who’s book ‘Poor Naked Wretches’ explores the variety of working people in Shakespeare's plays as well as a vast range of cultural sources from which they were drawn and argues that the robust realism of these characters makes them so much more than mere Comic Relief. 

Stephen Unwin is an award-winning British theatre and opera director.  He has directed almost 100 professional productions and worked with many well-established actors and singers, as well as developing the careers of many younger ones.  He studied at the University of Cambridge.

In the 1980s Stephen worked at the Almeida Theatre, London, the Traverse in Edinburgh, in repertoire theatre and at the National Theatre Studio.  In 1993, he founded English Touring Theatre, for whom he directed more than 30 productions of classical and new plays, many of which transferred to London.  In 2008, he became Artistic Director of the new Rose Theatre in Kingston, which he ran until January 2014.  He has worked extensively at the Theatre Royal Bath and has directed more than 20 operas.  Ten of his productions have been seen in the West End.

Stephen has taught in conservatoires and universities in Britain and America and written 10 books on theatre and drama, including ‘Poor Naked Wretches’. He has also written five original plays: ‘All Our Children’ was premiered at Jermyn Street Theatre in 2017 and staged in New York in 2019, and ‘Laughing Boy’ opened at Jermyn Street in 2024 and also played at the Theatre Royal Bath. 

Stephen is a campaigner for the rights and dignities of learning-disabled people and ‘Beautiful Lives: How We Got Learning Disabilities So Wrong’, is published by Wildfire Book in June 2025.

This is only a shortened version of Stephen’s achievements and I would encourage you to visit his website for much more information.  

You can find him at www.stephenunwin.uk 

https://reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/poor-naked-wretches

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Episode 160

A synopsis of the play

The sources and dating of the play

The problems with a historical drama in verse

The historical accuracy of the play

King John as neither a hero nor anti-hero

Philip the bastard as a central character in the play

The theme of self-identity and changing fortune in the play

Blanche as a representation of innocence manipulated

Queen Eleanor as the power behind the throne

Constance in grief and, maybe, madness, but eloquent

Movement towards the personal in the second half of the play

The confusion over the character of Hubert

The fate of the king as a metaphor for England

The performance history of the play

Link to the silent film from 1899 of the death of king John

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lWn99STB1o

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Episode 159

For today’s guest episode we are going back to the Italian renaissance theatre and the world of the Commedia Dell’arte.  You will remember that I covered the Commedia and other early Italian theatre in season five of the podcast, but in this conversation with Serena Laiena we have much more detail about a particular theatrical couple and the world of 16thcentury Italian theatre.  In her book ‘The Theatre Couple in Early Modern Italy: Self-Fashioning and Mutual Marketing’ Serena looks at the birth of a phenomenon, that of the couple in show business where she focuses on the mutually beneficial promotional strategies devised by two professional performers and husband and wife team, Giovan Battista Andreini and Virginia Ramponi.

Serena Laiena is Assistant Professor in Italian and Ad Astra Fellow at University College Dublin. Her research focuses on early modern Italian theatre, especially commedia dell’arte. Most of her time is devoted to the understanding of the social and cultural role of the first professional actresses in modern history.  The award-winning monograph that is the basis of our discussion today was published in 2023 by the University of Delaware Press.  Currently, she is working on a book-length project focusing on the correspondence by and about professional actresses to bring to light the managing roles they performed within theatre companies.

For more details on Serena's book:

UK link to Amazon.co.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Theatre-Couple-Early-Modern-Italy-ebook/dp/B0C9F9T6RX/ref=sr_1_1?

US link to Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Theatre-Couple-Early-Modern-Italy/dp/1644533154/ref=sr_1_1?

Link to publisher's website: https://udpress.udel.edu/book-title/the-theatre-couple-in-early-modern-italy-self-fashioning-and-mutual-marketing/

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Episode 158

Picking up the journey through Shakespeare's plays with 'Richard II'

A brief summary of the play

The early performance history of the play

The early print history of the play

The variations in the quarto editions concerning the deposition scene

The sources for the play

The role of the play in the Essex rebellion

The historical accuracy of the play

The dramatic arcs travelled by Richard and Bolingbroke

The political represented in the personal through the female roles

The significant role of minor characters

How verse is used in the play to distinguish the noble characters

The question of the divine right of kings and how it affects Richard’s character

The end of the play, Bolingbroke’s regrets, and how we might feel about them

The later performance history of the play

Support the podcast at:

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In the fifth part of this short series of guest episodes before we get back to continuing the journey through the Shakespeare and Jonson cannon I had the chance to speak with Dr Ian McCormick about the collection of essays he edited, which pulls together recent Shakespeare criticism in the framework of woke and anti-woke culture and the culture wars of recent years.  It is a wide ranging and thought provoking collection. 

Ian McCormick, was a Professor in the Department of English for the School of Cultural Studies at the University of Northampton, where he taught Shakespeare, Renaissance Literature, 18th-century Literature, and Literary Theory. He has edited and contributed to books in various fields including sexuality and gender studies; modern and postmodern literature; teaching and learning strategies; drama education and critical theory.  He has contributed to many academic publications, written a novel inspired by 18th century epistolatory novels and in the past he has organized two major international conferences for the British Society for Eighteenth-century Studies, at St John's College (University of Oxford).  For the full details of Ian's biography please see the guest page on the podcast website.

Links to 'Woke Shakespeare':

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Woke-Shakespeare-Rethinking-New-Era/dp/B0DQYB2TS5/ref=sr_1_1?

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Woke-Shakespeare-Rethinking-New-Era/dp/B0DQYB2TS5/ref=sr_1_1?

If you are interested in being considered to make a contribution to the next volume ‘Shakespeare: New Voices’, you have until the 30th June 2025 to make an application via the Penn State University call for papers page, where some details of the requirements are explained https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2023/05/18/shakespeare-new-voices

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In the fourth part of this short series of guest episodes before we get back to continuing the journey through the Shakespeare and Jonson cannon today’s episode is a repeat of episode 32 of the podcast, first released in late 2020.  Having just produced an episode on satyr play on the main podcast and another on the papyologists who rediscovered the play Trackers for the fledgling Patreon account I was very pleased to be able to talk to theatre director Jimmy Walters who have produced a revival of the play The Trackers of Oxyrhincus by Tony Harrison.  To hear from first-hand experience what it was like to produce a modern adaptation of a Greek play, especially something as rare as the satyr play was a real treat.   It is, I think, worthy of another listen if you heard it at the time, or a first listen if you have only joined us for the later theatrical periods.

Jimmy Walters has been a professional actor and then director for almost twenty years. In his directing career he has presented work at most of London’s most prestigious off-west end venues, including the Finborough Theatre, Southwark Playhouse and the Jermyn Street Theatre and at other venues around the UK.  Since 2022 he has been Education Practitioner for Shakespeare’s Globe leading Shakespeare workshops onsite for children of all ages.

Support the podcast at:

www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com

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In the third part of this series of guest episodes before we get back to continuing the journey through the Shakespeare and Jonson cannon, we are going deep into the world of the renaissance period boy actors, or perhaps, as they should more properly be called, apprentice players.  The habit of the period of young actors playing female roles is well known, but when I had the chance to talk to Roberta Barker about her study of apprentice players it soon became very clear that there is a lot more to their position in the playing company than that and we get to meet some of them as personalities in their own right.

Roberta Barker is a member of the Joint Faculty of King’s College, London, where she is Professor of Theatre teaching in the Foundation Year and Early Modern Studies programs, and Dalhousie University, Halifax Nova Scotia, where she teaches Theatre in the Fountain School of Performing Arts. Her research interests centre upon the relationship between performance and the social construction of identity and has explored such topics as the representation of gender and class in early modern tragedy, the early modern careers and modern afterlives of Shakespeare’s boy players, and (most recently) the role played by the performance of illness on the nineteenth-century stage in the evolution of realist style. She is also a theatre and opera director.

Support the podcast at:

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Episode 154

As you know form last week’s episode I’m running a short series of guest episodes before we get back to continuing the journey through the Shakespeare and Jonson cannon.  Today’s episode is a repeat of episode 30 of the podcast, first released in late 2020.  At the time I was discussing the early theatre of Rome and with the Ancient Greek theatre already under my belt I had started to reach out to academics and authors who could add depth and colour to the research that I had been able to do.  This episode with Dr Elodie Palliard was, I thought, particularly helpful in describing the likely developments in theatre in the murky period between the end of recorded Athenian theatre and early Roman theatre.  It is, I think, worthy of another listen if you heard it at the time, or a first listen if you have only joined us for the later theatrical periods.

Dr Elodie Paillard is currently an Honorary Associate in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Sydney, and a Partner Investigator in the Australian Research Council discovery project 'Theatre and Autocracy in Ancient Greece'. She is also a Project Leader at the University of Basel, financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation. After completing a PhD thesis on the staging of socio-political groups in Sophocles, and a postdoc on Greek theatre in Early Imperial Rome and Campania, Elodie is now working on Greek theatre in Republican Italy (500-27BC). She is also a member of the editorial board of the journal Mediterranean Archaeology.

Support the podcast at:

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Episode 153

Today’s guest episode serves as a great precursor to what is to come.  The discussion that you are about to hear with Charles Mosely focusses on Shakespeare as a man of the theatre and discusses how the plays were created for and affected by the Theatre, the Audience and the conventions of the time.  And that brief description does not do this wide ranging and detailed discussion any sort of justice.  I think all of the thoughts that Charles discusses are well worth holding I mind as we work through the plays of Shakespeare and Jonson over the coming months.

Charles Moseley is a difficult man to summarise in a few words.  He is a historian, literary critic and travel writer, but that only touches on part of his extensive output and experience.  Most relevant for our purposes today are his years as College Lecturer in English 

at Magdalene College, Cambridge, then Director of Studies in English (and later Fellow) of Wolfson College, and finally Senior Tutor and Director of Studies in English at Hughes Hall, Cambridge.  The depth of knowledge and enthusiasm that Charles holds for his subject is, I think, quite self-evident and I am sure you will enjoy every moment of this, just as I did.

To see more about Charles, his publications, and other writings, including a fuller biography you can go to www.charlesmoseley.com

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Episode 152

Following on from my thoughts on A Midsummer Night’s Dream last time I’m very pleased to welcome back Rachel Aanstad to the podcast for further thoughts on the play.  You may remember from our previous conversation about Twelfth Night that Rachel has devoted a lifetime to both the study and presentation of Shakespeare plays and as with Twelfth Night she has written an Illustrated Handbook and Encyclopaedia on ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.  This includes a complete rendition of the play along with a detailed glossary of terms, scene by scene analysis, an examination of characters and themes and practical advice for anyone directing, acting in or producing the play.  I found it invaluable in helping me to solidify my thoughts about the play and highly recommend it, whatever your interest in the play. 

Rachel Aanstad is a writer, artist, historian and self-confessed Shakespeare nerd. She has an MFA in theatre and is the former Artistic Director of Rose City Shakespeare Company. She lives in the pacific Northwest from where she writes books about Shakespeare’s plays. For our purposes today she is supremely well qualified to discuss ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ as, apart from her lifelong love of the play and her academic study, she has directed three productions of the play, one that was circus based, one that was burlesque based and one audio production. 

Links to ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream: An Illustrated Handbook and Encyclopaedia':

UK link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Midsummer-Nights-Illustrated-Handbook-Encyclopedia/dp/B09PKSTL1S/ref=sr_1_2

US link : https://www.amazon.com/Midsummer-Nights-Illustrated-Handbook-Encyclopedia/dp/B09PKSTL1S/ref=sr_1_2

Support the podcast at:

www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com

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