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
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,…
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’…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Nov. 25, 2024
The Life of Ben Jonson part Three: ‘There is no Greater Hell Than to be a Prisoner of Fear’
Episode 145: Continuing the story of Ben Jonson’s life from the point where just as he starts to make his mark in the theatre scene everything goes very badly wrong for him. ‘The Isle of Dogs’ at the Swan Theatre The closure…
Nov. 18, 2024
Shake-Scene Shakespeare: A Conversation With Lizzie Conrad-Hughes
Episode 144: On several occasions through the story of the renaissance theatre I have touched on how the players made use of cue sheets rather than full scripts as they rehearsed and performed plays, so I was fascinated to s…
Nov. 11, 2024
The Life of Ben Jonson Part Two: He That is Taught Only by Himself Has a Fool for a Master
Episode 143: The second part of the life of Ben Jonson takes him from his birth, through his years at school and onto working as a bricklayer. He then briefly joined the army before returning to become a player, a poet and …
Nov. 4, 2024
The Culture of The Shrew in Early Modern Europe: A Conversation with Dr Natalia Pikli
Episode 142 Dr Natália Pikli discusses the changing view of the 'The Shrew' in Medieval and Early Modern European culture and how women are represented in Shakespeare's early comedies, She then goes on to outline how Shakesp…
Oct. 28, 2024
The Life of Ben Jonson Part One: It’s Complicated
Episode 141: In this episode I set us up for a look at the life of Ben Johnson discussing some of the sources for information about his life and how far we can trust them – it’s complicated. Jonson’s 1618 visit to Scotland a…
Recent Blog Posts
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 dr…
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 can see i…
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…
