Welcome to The History of European Theatre Podcast Website and thanks for joining me through millennia of theatrical history.

The History Of European Theatre

A podcast tracing the development of theatre from ancient Greece to the present day through the places and people who made theatre happen. More than just dates and lists of plays we'll learn about the social. political and historical context that fostered the creation of dramatic art.This podcast u...

Recent Episodes

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Feb. 17, 2025

Trackers of Oxyrhincus: A Reprised Conversation with Jimmy Walters

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 lat…

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Feb. 10, 2025

Boy Actors: A Conversation with Roberta Barker

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…

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Feb. 3, 2025

The Development of Roman Theatre: A Reprised Conversation with Dr Elodie Palliard

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…

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Jan. 27, 2025

Playing with Shakespeare: A Conversation with Charles Moseley

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 wer…

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Jan. 20, 2025

A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Conversation With Rachel Aanstad

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 conversati…

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Jan. 13, 2025

A Midsummer Night’s Dream: ‘Man Is but An Ass If He Go About to Expound This Dream’

Episode 151 Having finished with Ben Jonson’s biography we can now go back in time just a little to work through Shakespeare’s and Jonson’s plays in more detail. By the early 1590s was then the man of the theatrical moment,…

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Jan. 6, 2025

A Bawdy Twelfth Night: A Conversation with Rachel Aanstad

Episode 150: For this very appropriately timed guest episode, which is released on the 6th January, Rachel Aanstad kindly agreed to come on the podcast and talk about the Elizabethan twelfth night traditions and Shakespeare’…

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Dec. 30, 2024

The Life of Ben Jonson Part Six: ‘Posterity Pays Every Man His Honour’

Episode 149 The life story of Ben Jonson concludes with events after the publication of his first folio to his death in 1637. ‘Bartholomew Fair’, a different sort of Jonson play. The finances of the court become more problem…

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Dec. 24, 2024

Will, Ben & Tom at Christmas: An Affectionate Pastiche

'Will, Ben and Tom at Christmas' is an affectionate pastiche, with my very best wishes to you all for Christmas and the New Year. Support the podcast at: www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com www.patreon.com/thoetp www.ko-fi.c…

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Dec. 16, 2024

The Life of Ben Jonson part Five: ‘Tis the House of Fame, Sir’

Episode 148: The life of Ben Jonson continues after he is released from prison after the publication of 'Eastward Ho!' Jonson’s possible involvement in the gunpowder plot and it’s aftermath. Jonson writes a masque for the ma…

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Dec. 9, 2024

'The Divas Gift': A Conversation With Pamela Allen Brown

One of the generally accepted facts about theatre in the time of Shakespeare and Jonson is that boy actors took female roles and women were banned from appearing on the stage. This is in fact only partly true and my guest f…

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Dec. 2, 2024

The Life of Ben Jonson part Four: The Playhouse, the Court, and ‘The Masque of Blackness’

Episode 146: The banning of printed satire. ‘Every Man Out of His Humour’ is produced by The Lord Chamberlin’s Men. ‘Cynthia’s Revels’ is performed at court but is not well received. ‘Poetester’ is performed at the Blackfria…

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Recent Blog Posts

Sept. 16, 2024

The Peacham Drawing: Titus Andronicus

'Titus Andronicus' is notable for being the subject of the only contemporary illustration of a Shakespeare play. Known as the Peacham drawing, and currently in the Library at Longleat House in Wiltshire, the seat of the Marquis of Bath, the …

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July 7, 2024

New Place, Stratford-Upon-Avon

Featured in episode 123: The History of New Place Here are three images to help you visualize Shakespeare’s house in Stratford-Upon-Avon, New Place. The first is a view of the site as it stands today. The side of the house you …

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July 7, 2024

Mystere des Trois Doms

Featured in episode 61: For the Money: The Medieval Commercial Theatre Ever wondered what a medieval play script looks like? This image is a page from the script for ‘Mystere des Trois Doms’. This play was produced in 1509 at Roma…

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The History Of European Theatre

Recent Episodes

Trackers of Oxyrhincus: A Reprised Conversation with Jimmy Walters

Boy Actors: A Conversation with Roberta Barker

The Development of Roman Theatre: A Reprised Conversation with Dr Elodie Palliard

Playing with Shakespeare: A Conversation with Charles Moseley

A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Conversation With Rachel Aanstad

A Midsummer Night’s Dream: ‘Man Is but An Ass If He Go About to Expound This Dream’

A Bawdy Twelfth Night: A Conversation with Rachel Aanstad

The Life of Ben Jonson Part Six: ‘Posterity Pays Every Man His Honour’

Will, Ben & Tom at Christmas: An Affectionate Pastiche

The Life of Ben Jonson part Five: ‘Tis the House of Fame, Sir’

'The Divas Gift': A Conversation With Pamela Allen Brown

The Life of Ben Jonson part Four: The Playhouse, the Court, and ‘The Masque of Blackness’

Recent Blog Posts

The Peacham Drawing: Titus Andronicus

New Place, Stratford-Upon-Avon

Mystere des Trois Doms

About the Host

Philip Rowe