The History Of European Theatre

Episode 238: If the autumnal feel to the later plays suggest to us that Shakespeare was feeling his age and thinking on his own mortality his next offering, ‘The Tempest’ does little to dispel that idea. There has long been an urge to identify Prospero, the controller of the action on the island where the action takes place, with Shakespeare himself and therefor to take his words as closely linked to the playwright, making this play his personal farewell to the theatre. Although this is Shakespeare’s last solo authored play that view is a little fanciful. He went on to co-author three more plays, only two of which survive, so it seems unlikely that ‘The Tempest’ was intentionally his last play. The fact is that we have no evidence for Shakespeare’s state of mind at this time, but what we do have in ‘The Tempest’ is a play that stands alongside his very best plays and which has remained very popular throughout the centuries since its first performance. The early performance history of the play The sources for the play The text of the play A synopsis of the play The role of magic in the play Music and Masque in the play Colonialism and the nature of power The character of Prospero Caliban and Ariel The unities of time and space The Epilogue The later performance history of the play Support the podcast at: www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com www.patreon.com/thoetp www.ko-fi.com/thoetp You can find an advertisement free version of the latest podcast episodes by joining on Patreon at the lowest paid tier level – that’s for just £1 per month. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 237: Later in life Shakespeare was creating his plays with two very different performance spaces in mind, the Globe and the Blackfriars, but probably also with a mind to the portability of plays for when they were taken to the court and into the country on tour. Performing Shakespeare in spaces not specifically designed for the theatre experience has, since then, been a maintained tradition not just in the UK but in worldwide locations. In his book ‘Site Specific Shakespeare’ author Benjamin Blyth examines case studies of different types of performance spaces and how they affect the performances and are used by the practitioners involved. Ben’s study is rooted in his own practical experience of theatre making and offers a fascinating insight into the diversity, challenges, and benefits of working with Shakespeare in different spaces. Benjamin Blyth is a lecturer of Medieval and Early Modern Literature at St. Mary’s University and the University of Calgary. A scholar-practitioner with ten years’ experience directing Shakespeare around the world, Ben specialises in site-specificity and practice-as-research. His work has appeared in critical articles for Early Theatre, Shakespeare Bulletin, and Miranda; and his book Site-Specific Shakespeare was published by Cambridge University Press in 2026. Ben’s doctoral monograph, Shakespeare in Shoreditch, will be published by Arden Bloomsbury in January 2027. Links to 'Site Specific Shakespeare' Cambridge University Press: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009617376 Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Site-Specific-Shakespeare-Elements-Performance/dp/1009617362/ref=sr_1_1/ Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Site-Specific-Shakespeare-Elements-Performance-ebook/dp/B0GY5KMBMF/ref=sr_1_1/ Support the podcast at: www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com www.patreon.com/thoetp www.ko-fi.com/thoetp You can find an advertisement free version of the latest podcast episodes by joining on Patreon at the lowest paid tier level – that’s for just £1 per month. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 236: During the days when the theatres were closed due to the plague, we don’t know if Shakespeare accompanied the King’s Men of tour, holed up in London or returned to Stratford-Upon-Avon for an extended stay, but when he emerged from whatever the Jacobean version of lockdown was, he had a new play ready for the 1611 reopening of the theatres and it was one that carried on with his recent experimentations in theatre. The dating of the play The early printing of the play The sources for the play A synopsis of the plot Leontes as a king with some recognisable characteristics James 1st and Arabella Stuart The trial of Hermionie Paulina – the politically aware woman The not quite happy ending Forgiveness, redemption and the passage of time ‘He exits pursued by a bear’ The pastoral act of the play Perdita, nature, art, and the meaning of flowers Honesty and the character and role of Autolocus The ‘reanimation’ of Hermionie The critical and performance history of the play Support the podcast at: www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com www.patreon.com/thoetp www.ko-fi.com/thoetp You can find an advertisement free version of the latest podcast episodes by joining on Patreon at the lowest paid tier level – that’s for just £1 per month. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 235: Last time I took a first look at ‘The Alchemist’ where Ben Jonson mixed farcical comedy with satire and more serious commentary on the society of the 1610s. The play is notable, among other things, for having the time of plague as it’s setting. It is, I think, the only play from that time to do this. And that was the jumping off point for my conversation with Kay Daly who makes a welcome return to the podcast after having previously discussed Shakespeare’s and Jonson’s world view. Those episodes are still out there on the podcast archive and, I think, well worth a listen if you haven’t done so already. Kay Daly is a writer, novelist, book and theatre reviewer, teacher, and public humanities advocate. Since earning her Ph.D. in English Literature from Northwestern University, she has written for a variety of publications and organizations including The Chicago Review of Books, TimeOut Chicago, the Metropolitan Opera, WNET New York Public Media, The Library of Virginia’s blog UnCommonwealth, Dramatics Magazine, and Centerstage Chicago. She also teaches adult enrichment courses focusing on arts and humanities at the Newberry Library in Chicago. And at the end of this episode you can hear a bit about her debut novel which is also concerned with the world of Ben Jonson and is due out in April 2027. I spoke to Kay from her home over a zoom call. Link to Kay's website: https://www.kaydalywriter.com Support the podcast at: www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com www.patreon.com/thoetp www.ko-fi.com/thoetp You can find an advertisement free version of the latest podcast episodes by joining on Patreon at the lowest paid tier level – that’s for just £1 per month. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 234: In 1610 Ben Jonson was penning what is often considered to be his most comic of comedies. Johnson was well into his middle age, being thirty-eight years old in 1610 and had several years of producing masques for the court behind him, but with the initial failure of ‘Epicene’ the previous year on the public stage still, no doubt, ringing in his ears. How much that failure influenced Jonson to turn to high comedy in ‘The Alchemist’ is difficult to say but the play is still one packed with satire, classical allusion, and comment on current fads and fashions, so still a very Jonsonian play. The early performance history of the play The source material for the play The early print history of the play The Acrostic summary of the play A not very brief but necessary summary of the play The play as a farce The vices as drivers for the plot The prologue The role of Alchemy in the play Models for Subtle, the alchemist The character of the main protagonists through their names: Face, Subtle, Sir Epicure Mammon, Drugger, Dapper, Kastril, and Dame Pliant The later performance history of the play Support the podcast at: www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com www.patreon.com/thoetp www.ko-fi.com/thoetp You can find an advertisement free version of the latest podcast episodes by joining on Patreon at the lowest paid tier level – that’s for just £1 per month Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.