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

Episodes

July 13, 2025

Shakespeare’s World View: A Conversation with Kay Daly

Episode 177: For today’s guest episode it is a warm welcome for Kay Daly to the podcast. In our conversation Kay took the opportunity to give an overview of Shakespeare’s world view as seen through his earlier plays and part...
Guest: Kay Daly
July 6, 2025

Every Man in his Humour: ‘Learn to be Wise and Practice How to Thrive’

Episode 176: In ‘Every Man In His Humour’ Jonson pays a debt to Roman comedy, but also shows us, in an almost fully formed way, his very own style. This is not the biting satire of many of his plays, but something a little g...
June 29, 2025

Shakespeare on the Radio: A Conversation with Andrea Smith

Episode 175: On today’s guest episode we welcome Andrea Smith to the podcast. Andrea’s book ‘Shakespeare on the Radio’ has just been published and she kindly agreed to come on and give us some highlights from her very detail...
Guest: Andrea Smith
June 22, 2025

The Case is Altered: ‘It Is the Pleasure of Our Fates That We Should Thus Be Wracked on Fortunes Wheel’

Episode 174: Ben Jonson's erliest play. Here we have the bricklayer’s son trying to make his way in the theatre and with the court. Until James came to the throne, he was pretty unsuccessful in the latter and as far as we ca...
June 15, 2025

Nothing Goes to Plan in Love’s Labour’s Lost: A conversation with Eleanor Conlon

Episode 173: For this guest episode it is a very welcome return for Eleanor Conlon, who you will remember discussed Titus Andronicus with me in Episode 22 of this season. Having picked over the brutal actions of that play wi...
June 8, 2025

Love’s Labour’s Lost: ‘Assist Me, Some Extemporal God of Rhyme’

Episode 172: Following on from 'The Merry Wives of Windsor' the refined courtly comedy that is ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’ might seem quite unrelated, but both plays are, in their own way, concerned with the use and abuse of langu...
June 1, 2025

Shakespeare in the Restoration: A Conversation with Stephen Watkins

Episode 171: For today’s guest episode it is a warm welcome to Stephen Watkins who is going to take us a little way forward in the timeline to the world of Restoration England where after fourteen years of closures theatres w...
May 25, 2025

The Merry Wives of Windsor:‘Wives May be Merry and Yet Honest Too’

Episode 170: Falstaff returns in Shakespeare's city comedy set in the countryside. 'The Merry Wives of Windsor' has been popular since it's first performance but remains something of an outlier in the cannon. The dating of t...
May 18, 2025

Performing Medieval Theatre: A Conversation with Kyle Thomas

Episode 169 A welcome return for Kyle Thomas to the podcast where we discussed Kyle’s work on preparing three of the York Cycle plays for performance this summer in Toronto. As you will hear Kule is part of a team that are g...
Guest: Kyle A Thomas
May 11, 2025

Henry IV Part 2: ‘We Have Heard the Chimes at Midnight’

Episode 168: Although Shakespeare's completion of the events of Henry IV’s reign is very much a continuation of the story from part one it is a play with a very different vibe. The vigour of the battle scenes and the exubera...
May 4, 2025

The Origins of Medieval Theatre: A Conversation with Kyle Thomas

Episode 167 A conversation with Kyle Thomas where we discussed the long transition period between Roman theatre and medieval theatre. As you may remember from my episodes on the medieval theatre this is a very opaque period ...
Guest: Kyle A Thomas
April 27, 2025

Henry IV Part 1: ‘Nothing Can Seem Foul to Those Who Win’

Episode 166: As with 'Richard II' 'Henry IV part 1' handles some complex English history as it examines the relationships between the King, his son and the powerful Percy family. After the deposition of Richard II Henry rule...
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...
Guest: Stephen Unwin
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...
Guest: Serena Laiena
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...
Guest: Ian McCormick
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...
Guest: Jimmy Walters
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 ...