Welcome to this full audio adaptation of the 1624 Lord Mayor's Show - The Monuments of Honour by John Webster.

This is a playful reconstruction of the show performed on the 29th October 1624. It was a massive civic event created by the city for it’s new Lord Mayor.

This reconstruction was SUPPOSED to have been recorded live on the 400th anniversary of the show - but, alas, the production fell through at the last minute. Instead we recorded this piecemeal over the last six months around other shows.

Full coverage of the 400 year old event, fed into our studio via the latest scrying glass link up...

It features Robert Crighton, as radio Host John doing the live commentary. With Liza Graham as Hostess Joan on the street. Karim Kronfli plays the author of the pageant, John Webster, and the speeches of the shows are performed by Keith Hill and Emma Kemp. Our advisor was Professor Tracey Hill, our city chronologer.

More from the civic world of London will come as we can pull it together.

Our patrons received this episode a month early.

The Beyond Shakespeare Podcast is supported by its patrons – become a patron and you get to choose the plays we work on next. Go to www.patreon.com/beyondshakespeare - or if you'd like to buy us a coffee at ko-fi https://ko-fi.com/beyondshakespeare - or if you want to give us some feedback, email us at [email protected], follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram @BeyondShakes or go to our website: https://beyondshakespeare.org

You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel where (most of) our exploring sessions live - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLa4pXxGZFwTX4QSaB5XNdQ

The Beyond Shakespeare Podcast is hosted and produced by Robert Crighton.

In August 2024, we produced an all day event  Middleton’s Endgame: A Game at Chess LIVE! a pop up Middleton festival at The White Bear in Kennington, featuring a live performance of A Game at Chess, discussions of the play, a look at Middleton’s last public work, the 1626 Lord Mayor’s show, and other selections of writing from across his life. The whole event, as ever, was recorded, and we're releasing these over the next few months. This is episode 3, which covers the second half of the live performance of A Game at Chess itself - from midway into Act 3. It followed the first half, and before that Setting up the Board, which delivered an overview of Thomas Middleton in the 1620’s, and the theatrical context for the play. It is a relatively simple mix of the play, a fuller mix with extra bells and whistles will follow anon.

In A Game at Chess by Thomas Middleton were…

Alexandra Kataigida – Black Queen’s Pawn

Ailbhe Casey – White Queen’s Pawn

Roel Fox – A White Pawn / Black Bishop’s Pawn

Robert Crighton – Black Knight’s Pawn

Keith Hill – Black Knight

Simon Nader – White Duke

Liza Graham – Fat Bishop

Daniel Yabut – Second Black Pawn / White King

Gillian Horgan – White Queen

Kit McGuire – Black Jesting Pawn / White Knight

Sojourner Hazelwood-Connell – White Bishop’s Pawn

Connor Robert-Brown – Black King

Valentina Vinci – Black Queen

Text coaching by Liza Graham

The music was specially composed and produced for the show by Roel Fox

The event was produced and edited by Robert Crighton

CW: Attempted sexual assault, dismissal of sexual assault victims, anti-catholic sentiments, ableist, racist, and fatphobic dialogue from the period. Discussion of violence, and of physical injuries.

YouTube playlist of readings of the play.

Podcast playlist on the play.

Patreon box set of this show.

The Legacy of Thomas Middleton discussing episode.

Our patrons received a rough mix of this episode in September 2024 - over 11 months in advance.

The Beyond Shakespeare Podcast is supported by its patrons – become a patron and you get to choose the plays we work on next. Go to www.patreon.com/beyondshakespeare - or if you'd like to buy us a coffee at ko-fi https://ko-fi.com/beyondshakespeare - or if you want to give us some feedback, email us at [email protected], follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram @BeyondShakes or go to our website: https://beyondshakespeare.org

You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel where (most of) our exploring sessions live - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLa4pXxGZFwTX4QSaB5XNdQ

The Beyond Shakespeare Podcast is hosted and produced by Robert Crighton.

Hello!

Just a quick update to remind you of our upcoming Wyrd Revels, a few guest announcements, and the possibility of some live streaming!

Beyond Wyrd Revels 2025

Performing at The White Bear Theatre, Kennington - 138 Kennington Park Rd, London SE11 4DJ

More info at our Revels page.

Support our work on our patreon. 

The Beyond Shakespeare Podcast is supported by its patrons – become a patron and you get to choose the plays we work on next. Go to www.patreon.com/beyondshakespeare - or if you'd like to buy us a coffee at ko-fi https://ko-fi.com/beyondshakespeare - or if you want to give us some feedback, email us at [email protected], follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram @BeyondShakes or go to our website: https://beyondshakespeare.org

You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel where (most of) our exploring sessions live - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLa4pXxGZFwTX4QSaB5XNdQ

The Beyond Shakespeare Podcast is hosted and produced by Robert Crighton. 

Speech! Speech! Occasional scenes and speeches from plays, voted for by those you support our work. This is a speech from Edward the Second by Christopher Marlowe, recorded live at our Revels season on Tuesday 11th December 2023. With Simon Mirza Nader as Edward II.

For more on Marlowe and his work - https://audioboom.com/playlists/4630963-christopher-marlowe

For a playlist covering all his extant and attributed work - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLflmEwgdfKoJWwbuP1UETF3ZBhrT--Wco

Our patrons received the scene within this episode in January 2024 - 20 months early!

The Beyond Shakespeare Podcast is supported by its patrons – become a patron and you get to choose the plays we work on next. Go to www.patreon.com/beyondshakespeare - or if you'd like to buy us a coffee at ko-fi https://ko-fi.com/beyondshakespeare - or if you want to give us some feedback, email us at [email protected], follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram @BeyondShakes or go to our website: https://beyondshakespeare.org

You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel where (most of) our exploring sessions live - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLa4pXxGZFwTX4QSaB5XNdQ

The Beyond Shakespeare Podcast is hosted and produced by Robert Crighton. 

In August 2024, we produced an all day event  Middleton’s Endgame: A Game at Chess LIVE! a pop up Middleton festival at The White Bear in Kennington, featuring a live performance of A Game at Chess, discussions of the play, a look at Middleton’s last public work, the 1626 Lord Mayor’s show, and other selections of writing from across his life. The whole event, as ever, was recorded, and we're releasing these over the next few months. This is episode 2, which covers the first half of the live performance of A Game at Chess itself. It followed Setting up the Board, which delivered an overview of Thomas Middleton in the 1620’s, and the theatrical context for the play. It is a relatively simple mix of the play, a fuller mix with extra bells and whistles will follow anon.

In A Game at Chess by Thomas Middleton were…

Alexandra Kataigida – Black Queen’s Pawn

Ailbhe Casey – White Queen’s Pawn

Roel Fox – Black Bishop’s Pawn

Robert Crighton – Black Knight’s Pawn

Keith Hill – Ignatius Loyola / Black Knight

Susan Kyd – Error / White King’s Pawn

Simon Nader – Black Bishop / White Duke

Liza Graham – Fat Bishop

Daniel Yabut – White King

Gillian Horgan – Prologue / White Queen / Fat Bishop’s Pawn

Kit McGuire – White Knight

Sojourner Hazelwood-Connell – White Bishop’s Pawn

Connor Robert-Brown – Black King

Valentina Vinci – Black Queen

Text coaching by Liza Graham

The music was specially composed and produced for the show by Roel Fox

The event was produced and edited by Robert Crighton

CW: Attempted sexual assault, dismissal of sexual assault victims, anti-catholic sentiments, ableist, racist, and fatphobic dialogue from the period. Discussion of violence, and of physical injuries.

 

YouTube playlist of readings of the play.

Podcast playlist on the play.

Patreon box set of this show.

The Legacy of Thomas Middleton discussing episode.

Our patrons received a rough mix of this episode in September 2024 - over 11 months in advance.

The Beyond Shakespeare Podcast is supported by its patrons – become a patron and you get to choose the plays we work on next. Go to www.patreon.com/beyondshakespeare - or if you'd like to buy us a coffee at ko-fi https://ko-fi.com/beyondshakespeare - or if you want to give us some feedback, email us at [email protected], follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram @BeyondShakes or go to our website: https://beyondshakespeare.org

You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel where (most of) our exploring sessions live - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLa4pXxGZFwTX4QSaB5XNdQ

The Beyond Shakespeare Podcast is hosted and produced by Robert Crighton.

 The History of the Damnable Life and Deserved Death of Doctor John Faustus, is the book that is the source for Christopher Marlowe's play. Chapter by chapter we will wander through the twists and turns of this story.

Our patrons also get an exploring session looking in detail at the text - join our chat here.

Thunder sfx thanks to zapsplat.com

Our patrons received this episode in August 2024 - approx. 13 months early. They have also received the next 14 chapters and exploring sessions!

The Beyond Shakespeare Podcast is supported by its patrons – become a patron and you get to choose the plays we work on next. Go to www.patreon.com/beyondshakespeare - or if you'd like to buy us a coffee at ko-fi https://ko-fi.com/beyondshakespeare - or if you want to give us some feedback, email us at [email protected], follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram @BeyondShakes or go to our website: https://beyondshakespeare.org

You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel where (most of) our exploring sessions live - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLa4pXxGZFwTX4QSaB5XNdQ

The Beyond Shakespeare Podcast is hosted and produced by Robert Crighton. 

It's time for some !Spoilers! for Act Five of Dido, Queen of Carthage by Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Nashe (discuss attribution with footnotes, please only write on one side of the paper at a time). The play was recorded at The White Bear Theatre on Tuesday 12th December 2023.

If you’d like more on this play, there are exploring sessions galore on the YouTube.

All our rehearsals, dress run, and rough live mix are on the patreon feed from £5 tier or above.

The full cast audio adaptation edit of this will follow later in the year. The recording used throughout this episode is a live mix of the performed play – it focuses on the text as writ - though it was a live show and there are some deviations made in the heat of performance. The final release will be cleaner and a more entertaining listen.

Sojourner Hazelwood-Connell – Dido

Kit McGuire – Aeneas

Karim Kronfli - Iarbus

Alex Kapila - Anna

Liza Graham - Hermes

Lynsey Beauchamp - Ilioneus

Sarah Blake - Nurse

Keith Hill - Achates

Alexandra Kataigida - Cloanthus

Pamela Flanagan - Ascanius

Simon Nader - Sergestus

Valentina Vinci – Technical Operator

The host was Robert Crighton.

CW: Discussion of war trauma, deaths, and issues of consent and race, discussion of racist language, multiple suicides, fire.

Our patrons received this episode in June 2025 - three months in advance.

The Beyond Shakespeare Podcast is supported by its patrons – become a patron and you get to choose the plays we work on next. Go to www.patreon.com/beyondshakespeare - or if you'd like to buy us a coffee at ko-fi https://ko-fi.com/beyondshakespeare - or if you want to give us some feedback, email us at [email protected], follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram @BeyondShakes or go to our website: https://beyondshakespeare.org

You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel where (most of) our exploring sessions live - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLa4pXxGZFwTX4QSaB5XNdQ

The Beyond Shakespeare Podcast is hosted and produced by Robert Crighton.

Recorded live last year, this is the post show discussion of our adaptation of the opening of A Mirror for Magistrates which covers The Fall of Richard II. The audio adaptation is available on the pod now.

With readers from the company, Liza Graham and Valentina Vinci

Professor Thomas Betteridge is Dean of the College of Business, Arts and Social Sciences at Brunel University London. He is an expert in English Reformation history and Tudor drama, a member of the Research Advisory Board for Historic Royal Palaces and a strategic reviewer for the AHRC.

Dr Harriet Archer is a lecturer in Early Modern English Literature at the University of St Andrews. Harriet’s research focuses on Tudor attitudes toward textual transmission, cultural production and literary authority, including the Renaissance reception of classical and medieval writing and thought in drama and printed poetry.

Dr Stephen Longstaffe has edited the only early modern play on the 1381 Peasant’s Revolt (Jack Straw) for the Edwin Mellen Press, a collection of essays on 1 Henry IV for Bloomsbury, and co-edited a collection of essays on the Elizabethan history play for Manchester University Press. He has a long-standing interest in the English radical tradition, history plays, clowns, and cue-scripts, and since his retirement a university lecturer, has trained in both clowning and improvisation.

Other materials:

William Baldwin/Beware the Cat - https://audioboom.com/playlists/4635670-beware-the-cat-by-william-baldwin

The Life and Death of Jack Straw (also Richard II) - https://audioboom.com/playlists/4629941-the-life-and-death-of-jack-straw

Thomas of Woodstock (also Richard II) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=639UxqcqScY&list=PLflmEwgdfKoJXBzOGF38vNRDJ78LC5pnm

Patreon Mirror Box Set - https://www.patreon.com/collection/483574

Our patrons received a rough cut of this episode in September 2024 - over eleven months in advance.

The Beyond Shakespeare Podcast is supported by its patrons – become a patron and you get to choose the plays we work on next. Go to www.patreon.com/beyondshakespeare - or if you'd like to buy us a coffee at ko-fi https://ko-fi.com/beyondshakespeare - or if you want to give us some feedback, email us at [email protected], follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram @BeyondShakes or go to our website: https://beyondshakespeare.org

You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel where (most of) our exploring sessions live - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLa4pXxGZFwTX4QSaB5XNdQ

The Beyond Shakespeare Podcast is hosted and produced by Robert Crighton. 

Speech! Speech! Occasional scenes and speeches from plays, voted for by those you support our work. This is a speech from The Arraignment of Paris by George Peele, recorded live at our Revels season on Saturday 16th December 2023. With Sarah Blake as Diana.

For more on the play The Arraignment of Paris visit our playlist on the play - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5rtIlvo8sQ&list=PLflmEwgdfKoIPwhoQevuUw4fqnoYhLk4X

For more on George Peele and one of his other plays The Old Wives' Tale - https://audioboom.com/playlists/4635651-the-old-wives-tale-by-george-peele

For a playlist covering all his extant and attributed work - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh7jhyKwrd4&list=PLflmEwgdfKoLEiTrRFvkIeYa0skCLKX7i

Our patrons received the scene within this episode in January 2024 - 19 months early!

The Beyond Shakespeare Podcast is supported by its patrons – become a patron and you get to choose the plays we work on next. Go to www.patreon.com/beyondshakespeare - or if you'd like to buy us a coffee at ko-fi https://ko-fi.com/beyondshakespeare - or if you want to give us some feedback, email us at [email protected], follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram @BeyondShakes or go to our website: https://beyondshakespeare.org

You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel where (most of) our exploring sessions live - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLa4pXxGZFwTX4QSaB5XNdQ

The Beyond Shakespeare Podcast is hosted and produced by Robert Crighton. 

Recorded live last year, this is our adaptation of the opening of A Mirror for Magistrates which covers The Fall of Richard II. We performed it live, and there were a few issues with the recording, so I've kept the edit fairly simple. The adaptation cuts the second poem on The Two Rogers, trims a few verses, and turns into acting dialogue the editorial meeting in the book. 

There was also a post show discussion, which will follow on the pod soon.

A team of writers gather to write a sequel to John Lydgate’s Fall of Princes, to accompany it’s reprinting. They decide to conjure the ghosts of dead figures, having them the wrongs they committed in life.

Introduction – Valentina Vinci

George Ferrer (conjuring Robert Tresilian) – Liza Graham

Henry, Lord Stafford (conjuring Sir Thomas of Woodstock) – Stephen Longstaffe

William Baldwin (conjuring Lord Mowbray) – Robert Crighton

Sir Thomas Chaloner (conjuring King Richard II) – Kit McGuire

Other materials:

William Baldwin/Beware the Cat - https://audioboom.com/playlists/4635670-beware-the-cat-by-william-baldwin

The Life and Death of Jack Straw (also Richard II) - https://audioboom.com/playlists/4629941-the-life-and-death-of-jack-straw

Thomas of Woodstock (also Richard II) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=639UxqcqScY&list=PLflmEwgdfKoJXBzOGF38vNRDJ78LC5pnm

Patreon Mirror Box Set - https://www.patreon.com/collection/483574

Our patrons received a rough cut of this episode in August 2024 - over eleven months in advance.

The Beyond Shakespeare Podcast is supported by its patrons – become a patron and you get to choose the plays we work on next. Go to www.patreon.com/beyondshakespeare - or if you'd like to buy us a coffee at ko-fi https://ko-fi.com/beyondshakespeare - or if you want to give us some feedback, email us at [email protected], follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram @BeyondShakes or go to our website: https://beyondshakespeare.org

You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel where (most of) our exploring sessions live - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLa4pXxGZFwTX4QSaB5XNdQ

The Beyond Shakespeare Podcast is hosted and produced by Robert Crighton.