Beyond Shakespeare

A Letter from the Privy Council to the Lord Mayor and the Aldermen of the City of London from 28th January 1593 - ordering the closing of public entertainment spaces. 

Exploring: The Tragedy of Antony (Act 4)
From our pre-production Exploring sessions, where we read through the text of this play for future use towards an audio/stage show.
The Tragedy of Antony is a translation of Robert Garnier's play, done into English by Mary Sidney, or Mary Herbert (Countess of Pembroke), in 1592. These are recordings of various readers and actors working through Act 4, as we tried to find a route into the play. It's the first step in a journey to understand and produce the play, with a plain text and full cast audio adaptation coming soon.
ALL CHANGE! Act Four throws us into the hands of the enemy - as Caesar and Agrippa discuss what's to be done with Antony and a messenger arrives to give them some news. Even the chorus is different - with Roman soldiers instead of the usual array of distressed Egyptians.
With Rob Myson, Alan Scott, and the inevitable host, Robert Crighton.
There are a few editions of the play available both in print and online (one online version can be found here http://www.luminarium.org/renascence-editions/antonie.html) - we're very fond of the Three Tragedies by Renaissance Women, Penguin Renaissance Dramatists edition edited by Diane Purkiss; as well as the Renaissance Drama by Women, Routledge, edited by S.P. Cerasano and Marion Wynne-Davies. At least one other edition exists, but we haven't looked at it yet.
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 follow us on Twitter @BeyondShakes or even go to our website: https://beyondshakespeare.org

Exploring: The N-Town Play, a slow burn look at a medieval Mystery (sort of) cycle. The N-Town Play comes to us as a single manuscript, but it's a compilation of various different sources - including elements from what looks like a cycle and various other large scale productions focusing on episodes from the Bible.
The journey continues - in that we actually start all over again! We return to plays 1 and 2 as well as the relevant banns over a couple of sessions, trying to dig a little deeper into the text and think about staging. Go back a few episodes to see how far we've come, or go even further with some of the below links. There are quite a few...
For play 1, you can compare this play with our work on other fall of Lucifer plays - an Exploring session of Chester https://audioboom.com/posts/2158551-chester-plays-1-1-the-fall-of-lucifer (there's a part two, too) or our rough full cast audio adaptation here https://audioboom.com/posts/3529283-the-fall-of-lucifer-chester-mystery-cycle More variations exist and we'll get to them anon.
For play two - https://audioboom.com/posts/2449437-chester-plays-2-1-adam-and-eve (there's a part two, too) or our rough full cast audio adaptation here https://audioboom.com/posts/6379457-adam-and-eve-chester-mystery-cycle. And there are other variations coming in the next few months - so hang on in there.
The Beyond Shakespeare Irregulars this episode were Liz Cole, Richard Fawcett, Mark Scanlon, Alan Scott and Maria Walker – with host, Robert Crighton.
There are various online and purchasable versions available - here's a good one, but is in the original middle English and might put you off - others should be hunted for to taste.
Play 1: https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/sugano-n-town-plays-play-1-creation-of-heaven-fall-of-lucifer
And Play 2: https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/sugano-n-town-plays-play-2-creation-of-the-world-fall-of-man

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 want to give us some feedback, email us at [email protected], follow us on Twitter @BeyondShakes or go to our website: https://beyondshakespeare.org

What's Past is Prologue: Sophonisba by John Marston - a quick look at the prologue, which really is a prologue.
Sophonisba opens with business. Businessy business, and people and stuff. It's an all plot prologue and it is necessary. Look at these people move.
And if you're really good, there'll be the epilogue soon. In fact, if you're a patron, it's available now. A Sophonisba sandwich, if you will.
The prologue is performed by the fabulous Sarah Golding, voice actor and audio producer extraordinary - you can hear Sarah Golding all over the podcasting world as a voice actor, and as the creator of MADIVA Podcast (or MODERN AUDIO DRAMA INDIE VOICE ACTING PODCAST) @QuirkyVoices

DO YOU WANT TO HEAR MORE? If you'd like to make us to do a full audio production of this play, join us on patreon and choose this play at the next vote. www.patreon.com/beyondshakespeare or you can follow us on Twitter @BeyondShakes - or go to our website beyondshakespeare.org
The episode is hosted and produced by Robert Crighton.
Additional sound effects from the wonderful people at http://www.freesfx.co.uk

The Hunting of Cupid by George Peele (Fragments)
This is not a reconstruction of this lost play, because most of the fragments are notebook scratchings by William Drummond and make almost no sense. So we've put together this tone poem that dances through the text in a fun way which we hope you'll enjoy. It's also followed by a more straightforward look at the fragments from our exploring sessions in 2019 - and you can follow along with this online version of the text https://archive.org/details/collections0405malouoft/page/306/mode/2up.
The voices are: Mark Scanlon, Pamela Flanagan, Leigh McDonald, Simon Nader and Geir Madland - technical presentation by Robert Crighton. All sound effects were created in the studio except the heartbeat and the arrows which were supplied by the lovely www.zapsplat.com
Exploring: The Beyond Shakespeare Irregulars were Alan Scott, Liz Cole and Mark Scanlon. Your Host was Robert Crighton.
Support the podcast by going to www.patreon.com/beyondshakespeare and pledge something – or by leaving a review on itunes or whichever podcasting service you use. Or follow us on Twitter @BeyondShakes or check out our website at www.beyondshakespeare.org - you can even email us if you feel so inclined - [email protected]

Exploring: The Tragedy of Antony (Act 3)
From our pre-production Exploring sessions, where we read through the text of this play for future use towards an audio/stage show.
The Tragedy of Antony is a translation of Robert Garnier's play, done into English by Mary Sidney, or Mary Herbert (Countess of Pembroke), in 1592. These are recordings of various readers and actors working through Act 3, as we tried to find a route into the play. It's the first step in a journey to understand and produce the play, with a plain text and full cast audio adaptation coming soon.
Act Three returns us to the world of Mark Antony - discussing his fate (or his FATE) with his mate Lucilius, and then the chorus. Technically we will meet Antony again, in reported speech and as a very prominent corpse, but this is his last scene. It's also the last time we will meet this particular chorus. With cast member Heydn McCabe, Irregular regular Alan Scott, and the inevitable host, Robert Crighton. 
There are a few editions of the play available both in print and online (one online version can be found here http://www.luminarium.org/renascence-editions/antonie.html) - we're very fond of the Three Tragedies by Renaissance Women, Penguin Renaissance Dramatists edition edited by Diane Purkiss; as well as the Renaissance Drama by Women, Routledge, edited by S.P. Cerasano and Marion Wynne-Davies. At least one other edition exists, but we haven't looked at it yet.
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 follow us on Twitter @BeyondShakes or even go to our website: https://beyondshakespeare.org

Update Description

Exploring: Somebody and Others (Fragment)
This play is called variously (because there isn't a proper title) Somebody and Others, or The Spoiling of Lady Verity, or Somebody, Avarice and Minister - dated to around 1547 to 1550 (the maximum range is from 1534 to 1562) and possibly printed around 1550 - it is apparently an adaptation of French play - which we've not seen. As with all these sessions it's probable that we've hared off on a false scent - especially regarding the nature of Minister, who Robert was clearly all wrong about. Though there are inconsistencies in the logic of the action that we flag up. There is also a question of character labelling - the part Somebody later in the text should perhaps be Simony, which seemed right at the time and still does - but she's not listed as a part in the various guides we have consulted.
Basically, we're probably wrong about everything and a look at the French play this is based on would help - there are many more questions than answers.
One day we will come back, yes one day, but till then, here's a starting point for a fuller production.
The Beyond Shakespeare Irregulars this episode were Liz Cole, Mark Scanlon, and Alan Scott – with host, Robert Crighton.
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 you can buy us a one off coffee at
https://ko-fi.com/beyondshakespeare
Or if you want to give us some feedback, email us at [email protected], follow us on Twitter @BeyondShakes or go to our website: https://beyondshakespeare.org

Spoilers: The Tragedy of Mariam by Elizabeth Cary (Introduction and Argument)
Welcome to this first spoiler episode to The Tragedy of Mariam, the Fair Queen of Jewry by Elizabeth Cary - and it's sort of not very spoilery! It's all about backstory and what comes before the action of the play (though there are some spoilers to the play). Host Robert Crighton attempts to explain the backstory and then is joined by Pamela Flanagan (who will be playing Salome) to read through Elizabeth Cary's attempt to explain the backstory. It's super hard... so just relax.
BE WARNED - If you just want to listen to the play as a play, don't listen to the spoilers episodes. Come back later, or don't listen. However, if you find early drama hard to follow, then you will get a good grounding in the action here - especially as we may make changes or cuts for our final version! The plain text version is rough in hew, it will change and we produce it in part to hunt out errors. You can buy soooooo many editions of this play you can buy - just google them, seriously - there are also etexts and on YouTube various other looks at the play. There will be more details coming soon for all the various links on the website, but till then...
For text, there's loads online - for example the Norton https://wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/noa/pdf/27636_17th_U03_Cary-1-51.pdf
And for your facsimile type thing something like this is out there https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.176700/page/n21/mode/2up

If you can't wait for our production there's the video of the Royal Holloway 1995 production, directed by Elizabeth Schafer
https://youtu.be/TOYsjNcG93w
Other online versions can and should be searched for. Support the podcast by going to www.patreon.com/beyondshakespeare and pledge something – or by leaving a review on itunes or whichever podcasting service you use. Or follow us on Twitter @BeyondShakes or check out our website at www.beyondshakespeare.org - you can even email us if you feel so inclined - [email protected]

Exploring: The N-Town Play, a slow burn look at a medieval Mystery (sort of) cycle. The N-Town Play comes to us as a single manuscript, but it's a compilation of various different sources - including elements from what looks like a cycle and various other large scale productions focusing on episodes from the Bible. We continue with Play 2, following the story of the fall of Adam and Eve. It follows on directly from the previous play with the creation of the rest of the universe - and we'll be coming back to this play in the future for more work.
You can compare this play with our work on other fall of Adam and Eve plays - an Exploring session of Chester https://audioboom.com/posts/2449437-chester-plays-2-1-adam-and-eve (there's a part two, too) or our rough full cast audio adaptation here https://audioboom.com/posts/6379457-adam-and-eve-chester-mystery-cycle. And there are other variations coming in the next few months - so hang on in there.
The Beyond Shakespeare Irregulars this episode were Liz Cole, Richard Fawcett, Mark Scanlon, and Alan Scott – with host, Robert Crighton.
There are various online and purchasable versions available - here's a good one, but is in the original middle English and might put you off - others should be hunted for to taste. https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/sugano-n-town-plays-play-2-creation-of-the-world-fall-of-man

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 want to give us some feedback, email us at [email protected], follow us on Twitter @BeyondShakes or go to our website: https://beyondshakespeare.org

Exploring: The Cruel Debtor (Fragment) - written by one of the Wagers, William or Lewis. This play survives in a couple of fragments and we may not have quite pieced it all together properly - or not put in the correct gaps - but there's a lot of fun material to play with in this big con of a play. One day we will come back, yes one day, but till then, here's a starting point for a fuller production.
The Beyond Shakespeare Irregulars this episode were Liz Cole, Mark Scanlon, and Alan Scott – with host, Robert Crighton.
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 you can buy us a one off coffee at
https://ko-fi.com/beyondshakespeare
Or if you want to give us some feedback, email us at [email protected], follow us on Twitter @BeyondShakes or go to our website: https://beyondshakespeare.org