The History Of European Theatre

Episode 201‘Troilus and Cressida’, is a challenging piece by pretty much everybody’s estimation.  Although it is no surprise that Shakespeare looked to the Homeric tales for his next inspiration which part of that story he chose to dramatize perhaps is and what he chose to do with it has perplexed commentators ever since.  Ambiguous is the word most often used, but ultimately opinions range through ‘failure’ to ‘misunderstood’ to ‘modernistic’, and just about everything else in-between.  The early print history and dating of the playThe confusion caused by the two quarto versions and the First Folio versionThe source material for the playA brief synopsis of the play‘Troilus and Cressida’ as a ‘problem play’The PrologueThe play as an ensemble pieceThe ignoble nature of the characters in the playCassandra as the voice of truthTroilus and his view of CressidaIs there a parallel with Romeo and Juliet?The portrayal of Achilles and HectorUlysses and the ‘great chain of being’ argumentWas the play written for the Inns of Court?Pandarus and the bitter ending to the play explainedThe critical reception of the playThe performance history of the playSupport the podcast at:www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.comwww.patreon.com/thoetpwww.ko-fi.com/thoetp Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 200For today’s guest episode it is a welcome return to the podcast for Stephen Unwin.  I spoke to Stephen earlier in this Shakespeare and Jonson season to discuss his book ‘Poor Naked Wretches’ which examines the way Shakespeare portrayed working people and their significance in the plays.  For his next published work Stephen has produced a work that examines Berthold Brecht’s lifelong obsession with Shakespeare and which makes the case for reading the two playwrights together.  This is part of the Arden Performance Companion series so is slanted towards practical suggestions about how performance of Shakespeare can be achieved through Brechtian techniques.Link to Stephen’s website: www.stephenunwin.ukLink to online retailers for ‘Shakespeare and Brecht’:Bloomsbury UK: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/shakespeare-and-brecht-9781350419612/Bloomsbury US: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/shakespeare-and-brecht-9781350419636/Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shakespeare-Brecht-Practical-Performance-Companions/dp/1350419613/ref=asc_df_1350419613Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Shakespeare-Brecht-Practical-Performance-Companions/dp/1350419613/ref=sr_1_1Support the podcast at:www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.comwww.patreon.com/thoetpwww.ko-fi.com/thoetp Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 199: The line I have used for the title of today’s episode is spoken by Feste the fool, a central character in ‘Twelfth Night’.  Fools have already played significant roles in Shakespeare’s previous plays and as you will hear there are possible connections between them and Feste, but significant as he is, and fools will be in forthcoming Shakespeare plays, there is so much more to Twelfth Night than just that one character.  It is a play where other Shakespearean comedic characteristics also feature – identical twins, empowered and quick-witted women, variants on the braggart soldier character, and an exotic, virtually mystical, setting, spring to mind.  If ever there was a comedy where Shakespeare was completely in his stride then this, for me, is the one.The early performance history of the playThe dating of the playThe early print history of the playThe sources for the playThe establishing of social roles in the playThe positions of the knights Sir Toby and Sir AndrewThe role of Feste, the fool.The impact of Feste’s songsFeste as a portrait of Thomas NasheThe centrality of Malvolio to the themes of the playFeste’s sung epilogue to the playLove, desire and infatuation in the playThe play as a knowingly theatrical storyThe performance history of the playSome of the critical reaction to the play Link to Rachel Aanstad’s ‘A Bawdy Twelfth Night’ for UK customers:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Encyclopedia-Dramaturgical-Shakespearean-Encyclopedias-Handbooks/dp/B0BT2DZGTK/ref=sr_1_1Link to Rachel Aanstad’s ‘A Bawdy Twelfth Night’ for US customers:https://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Dramaturgical-Shakespearean-Encyclopedias-Handbooks/dp/B0BT2DZGTK/ref=sr_1_1Support the podcast at:www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.comwww.patreon.com/thoetpwww.ko-fi.com/thoetp Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 198:As Ben Jonson was writing ‘The Poetaster’ in 1601 the Elizabethan age was drawing to a close.  Elizabeth would live until March 1603, but by 1601 any hope of a natural heir was long past and her court and councillors were playing a waiting game and with different degrees of secrecy were trying to manipulate the situation over the accession to their own advantage.  Jonson, I’m sure, had an eye and an ear on those politics, but the comedy he was writing was more concerned with the politics of the theatre than those in the court.  In the previous episode on ‘Cynthia’s Revels’ and in my episodes on Thomas Dekker, that you can still find on the podcast archive, I have touched on ‘the war of the poets’ and this episode on ‘The Poetaster’ will bring these matters to a close.  Although it’s not essential you might find listening to those earlier episodes useful, if you have not done so already, before listening to this one.The early performance of the play and it’s place in the ‘war of the poets’The print history of the playThe theme of the role of the poetA short synopsis of the playThe caricature of John MarstonThe Poetaster and SatiromastixThe feud as fuelled by the rivalry between playing troupesThe poet as councillor and companion to the monarchThe exposing of the poetastersThe change in titleReference to the Essex rebellionThe attempted censoring of the playThe epilogueThe end of the ‘Poetomachia’Support the podcast at:www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.comwww.patreon.com/thoetpwww.ko-fi.com/thoetp Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 197: For today’s guest episode I had the pleasure of talking to Simon Sandys Winsch, author of the Illustrated Tudor Dictionary.  Given Simon’s broad knowledge of the period I took the opportunity to talk to him about some of the entries in the dictionary that give us a view of what life was like for the Elizabethan’s who went to the London theatres.  We started by going back a few years into the reign of Henry 8th and discussed actions of his, the legacy of which the Elizabethans were still living with which led onto conversations about some of the struggles of the ordinary Elizabethan life.Simon Sandys Winsch graduated from Aberystwyth university with a degree in History and international politics and then became a history teacher working in various schools.  It was during that career that he realised the importance of knowing topics in depth as well as the need to keep lessons informative and interesting as possible and he now puts those skills to use in writing history books.Link to the Tudor Illustrated Dictionary on Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Illustrated-Tudor-Dictionary-Simon-Sandys-Winsch/dp/1036101983/ref=sr_1_1?Link to the Tudor Illustrated Dictionary on Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Tudor-Dictionary-Simon-Sandys-Winsch/dp/1036101983/ref=sr_1_1?Support the podcast at:www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.comwww.patreon.com/thoetpwww.ko-fi.com/thoetp Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.