Episodes
March 16, 2025
King John: ‘New Made Honour Doth Forget Men’s Names’
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...
March 9, 2025
The Theatre Couple in Early Modern Italy: A Conversation with Serena Laiena
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...
March 3, 2025
Richard II: ‘Sad Stories of the Death of Kings’
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 ...
Feb. 24, 2025
Woke Shakespeare: A Conversation with Ian McCormick
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...
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 late...
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 ...
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 ...
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 were...
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 conversatio...
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’s...
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 problema...
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.co...
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 mar...
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 fo...
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 Blackfriar...
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 se...
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 a...
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 Shakespe...
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 an...
Oct. 21, 2024
The Kings Lynn Medieval Stage: A Conversation With Tim Fitzhigham
In October 2023 the story of the discovery of a stage floor that dated from before the Elizabethan period in St George’s Guildhall in Kings Lynn hit the news. The attrition to the headline writers was the fact that that very...
Oct. 14, 2024
The Comedy of Errors: ‘Hand in Hand, Not One Before the Other.’
Episode 139: Last time ‘Two Gentlemen of Verona’ gave us a look at second comedy from Shakespeare’s early phase as a playwright. As you heard certain elements in the plotting of the play and execution of its denouement make ...
Oct. 7, 2024
A Knack to Know a Knave: ‘Laugh at the Faults and Weigh it as it is.’
Episode 138: Over the course of speaking about English Renaissance Plays and Shakespeare I have had cause to mention the play ‘A Knack to Know a Knave’ several times. Most latterly because it is thought to include references...