Episodes
July 25, 2022
Commedia Dell’arte: Characters and Masks
Episode 81: The development of common character types through the travelling troupes. The hierarchy of character, the troupe, and how that reflected society in general. The five main characters: Pantalone Il Dottore Il Capita...
July 11, 2022
Mountebanks, Charlatans, and the Origins of Commedia Dell’arte
Episode 80: The influence of Italian literary theatre can be seen in later works, but if there is one form that infiltrated the general consciousness of theatrical comedy on the continent it is the Commedia Dell’arte. A defin...
June 27, 2022
Keeping It Real: Italian Theatre In Perspective
Episode 79: As things moved on in the early renaissance art - painting and sculpture - led the way and theatre soon followed. Artists tried to inject more realism into their work, showing their subjects as they really were, ...
June 13, 2022
Entertaining Madrid: The Corral del Principe
Episode 78: Records about the second corral in Madrid tell us a lot about the theatre. In this episode we go through the details of what the different parts of the theatre on the Calle del Principe were like. A short reminde...
May 30, 2022
Life Is a Dream: Pedro Calderon de la Barca
Episode 77: The life of Pedro Calderon de la Barca who took Lope de Vega’s crown as the greatest living Spanish playwright after Lope’s death in 1635 His childhood, youthful brushes with the law, military service and early pl...
May 16, 2022
A Master At Work: The Plays of Lope de Vega
Episode 76: A discussion of a sample of the plays by Lope de Vega The Gardener's Dog: A Comedy The meaning of the title, a plot summary, the major themes. Punishment Without Vengeance: A Tragedy. A plot summary, it's debt to ...
May 3, 2022
The Second Anniversary Episode
A special bonus episode to celebrate the second anniversary of the podcast. We step out of the timeline of the renaissance theatre as I tell the story of the venue that was the home to my first theatrical experiences - The Ca...
May 2, 2022
Lope de Vega: The World’s Most Prolific Playwright
Episode 75: The Life of Lope de Vega, greatest dramatist of the Spanish Renaissance Theatre. He had a very full life which was not just confined to writing plays, but his output was prolific on a scale that has not been match...
April 23, 2022
Shakespeare: Wordsmith of the English Language
A special bonus episode to celebrate the Birthday of William Shakespeare which looks at the way he used and created the English Language. Support the podcast at: www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com www.ko-fi.com/thoetp www.pa...
April 18, 2022
The Spanish Playhouse, its manager, his actors, and their audience
Episode 74: The development of Spanish theatre buildings, including the original, the Corral de la Olivera in Valencia. Alberto Ganassa and the influence of his Comedia Dell Arte troupe. The first theatre in Madrid the Corral...
April 4, 2022
Spanish Renaissance Theatre part 2: Before the Comedia
Episode 73 Continuing the story of the development of theatre through the early Spanish renaissance via the life and works of the playwrights. With apologies for the slightly raspy 'post-covid' throat at the time of recording...
March 21, 2022
Spanish Renaissance Theatre part 1: The Beginning of a National Drama
Episode 72 The Situation in Spain prior to the Renaissance period with a summary of developments in the Roman and Medieval periods in Spain. The merging of religious and secular theatre at the end of the medieval period. The ...
March 7, 2022
French Renaissance Theatre part 2: Aristotle Rules, OK?
Episode 71 The continuation of the story of Renaissance theatre in France. The rise of the two theatres in Paris as travelling players were at last allowed to perform in the city. Antoine de Montchrestien and his version of G...
Feb. 21, 2022
French Renaissance Theatre part 1:The Italian Influence
Episode 70 Catherine De Medici, her arrival in Paris for marriage to Henry, second son of Francis 1 st . Her cultural influence and role as wife of the King, and mother to three successive French rulers. The Hotel De Bourgog...
Feb. 7, 2022
Germanic Renaissance Theatre
Episode 69 The Renaissance met the Reformation in the Germanic States of Northern Europe so we start with a word on Martin Luther and his love of music and qualified approval of theatre. Latin drama of Jacob Wimpheling and Th...
Jan. 24, 2022
La Pellegrina: Comedy for a Royal Renaissance Wedding
Episode 68 A detailed look at 'La Pellegrina', a play written for the wedding celebrations of Grand Duke Fernando of Sienna in 1589. The background to the writing of the play commissioned by Cardinal Fernando Di Midici A desc...
Jan. 10, 2022
The Italian Rebirth part 3
Episode 67 In this third part of the story of theatre in the Italian Renaissance the counter reformation overshadows the work of playwrights. We conclude the story of Giovan Maria Cecchi with a look at his later sacred drama ...
Dec. 27, 2021
The Italian Rebirth part 2
Episode 66 Continuing from the last episode with more comedic dramatists from the Italian renaissance we meet Angelo Beolco who, under the tutorage of Ariosto, created, and became synonymous with, the character of Ruzzante. T...
Dec. 24, 2021
Dancing Dan’s Christmas
For Christmas 2021 a reading of 'Dancing Dan's Christmas', a short story by Damon Runyon. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy
Dec. 13, 2021
The Italian Rebirth part 1
Episode 65 The development of tragedy and comedy in early Italian renaissance theatre happened on parallel paths as each struggeled to look forward rather than back. The development of Tragedy following the rediscovery of the...
Nov. 29, 2021
From Medieval to the Renaissance
Episode 64 In the first part of season four we bridge the gap between the Medieval and Renaissance periods with a mention of the key artistic movements and historical events that can be used to mark the beginning of the perio...
Nov. 22, 2021
Season Four Trailer: European Renaissance Theatre
Season 4 Trailer: European Renaissance Theatre www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com Twitter: @thoetp Patreon: www.patreon.com/thoetp This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://charta...
Nov. 15, 2021
Medieval Places Of Seeing
Episode 63 In a coda to season 3 somewhere in England an acting troupe travels through a cold December at the tale end of the Medieval period, in search of an audience. A fictional account using the facts and assumptions disc...
Nov. 1, 2021
An Introduction to the Diary of Philip Henslowe
In this bonus episode we get an introduction the the diary of Philip Henslowe, theatre owner and businessman during the end of the Tudor period and beginning of the Stuart period. Elements from the diary will feature on upcom...