Episodes
April 20, 2025
Shakespeare’s Tutor: A Conversation with Darren Freebury-Jones
Episode 165 In today’s guest episode it is a very welcome return to the podcast for Darren Freebury-Jones. Darren appeared previously to discuss his book ‘Shakespeare’s Borrowed Feathers’ and I asked him back on this occasio...
April 13, 2025
The Merchant of Venice: ‘The Quality of Mercy is not Strained’
Episode 164 Fate, as in Romeo and Juliet, plays a large part in ‘The Merchant of Venice’, as do deep seated grudges, but these are more societal than familial. We are still in Italy, but no longer in close knit Verona, but m...
April 6, 2025
A Statue in Verona: The Afterlife of Romeo and Juliet
Episode 163 My background reading while preparing the episode on Romeo and Juliet took me to many stories about and thoughts on the afterlife of the play and its continuing influence on western culture, what follows is just a...
March 30, 2025
Romeo and Juliet:‘These violent delights have violent ends.’
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 sto...
March 23, 2025
Poor Naked Wretches: A Conversation with Stephen Unwin
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 wor...
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...