Beyond Shakespeare

Spoilers: The Life and Death of Jack Straw (Act 2, Scenes 2 to 5)
Jack Straw is not a long play, but that won't stop us going into ridiculous amounts of detail about it. The rest of Act 2, following the goose scene, is a blur of incident as the rebellion sparks off into violence following a failed parley on the banks of the river Thames.  The scenes are illustrated via a rough cut of our soon to be released full cast audio adaptation - which languishes in the edit as we post this.
The rough cut of Act 2 scenes 2 to 5 to The Life and Death of Jack Straw is performed by Pollie Hall as Jack Straw, Leigh McDonald as Wat Tyler, Hugh Weller-Poley as Tom Miller, Andy Barrett as Hob Carter, Sarah Golding as Nobs, Heydn McCabe as Sir John Newton, Geir Madland as Sir John Morton, Rob Myson as the bargeman, Alan Scott as the men of Southwark and Nemonee Stone as Richard II. With your host Robert Crighton.

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 follow the text online - though some texts are better than others. There are, to our current knowledge, only two modern editions - the print on demand acting edition published by Groundling Press which can be found at their website http://www.groundlingpress.com/, and the almost impossible to get edition edited by Stephen Longstaffe (Mellen Critical Editions, 2002). Online versions exist - there is a copy of a fascimile at archive.org, which serves as a foundation https://archive.org/details/cu31924013324540/page/n9
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]

Nice Wanton, by anonymous (dated somewhere between 1547 - 1553) - with the version that we have having probably been revised around 1560.

Nice Wanton is a fascinating interlude, a moral tale that is... somewhat judgy. Anything fun is bad and will lead to disease, poverty and death. As usual, a rough read through - with only a couple of "strong message here" accidental reading of stage directions as dialogue.
There is an online version of the text available on Project Gutenberg here - other versions do exist, though we're not sure if they're in print. 
The Irregulars were Liz Cole, Richard Fawcett, 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 follow us on Twitter @BeyondShakes or even go to our website: https://beyondshakespeare.org
 

Spoilers: The Life and Death of Jack Straw (Act 2, Scene 1)
GOOSE ALERT - GOOSE ALERT
Jack Straw is not a long play, but that won't stop us going into ridiculous amounts of detail about it. Act 2, scene 1 is the scene everyone remembers. There isn't enough time in the world to discuss the moral complexity of this deeply intellectual scene. Okay, it's a bit of Pantomime business - but it's great and does tie in (vaguely) with the plot, whilst also giving the audience a bit of light relief. The scene is illustrated via a rough cut of our soon to be released full cast audio adaptation - which languishes in the edit as we post this.
The rough cut of Act 2 scene 1 to The Life and Death of Jack Straw is performed by Hugh Weller-Poley and is introduced by your host Robert Crighton.

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 follow the text online - though some texts are better than others. There are, to our current knowledge, only two modern editions - the print on demand acting edition published by Groundling Press which can be found at their website http://www.groundlingpress.com/, and the almost impossible to get edition edited by Stephen Longstaffe (Mellen Critical Editions, 2002). Online versions exist - there is a copy of a fascimile at archive.org, which serves as a foundation https://archive.org/details/cu31924013324540/page/n9
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 Chester Mystery Cycle - Play 20 (The Ascension)

From our Exploring workshop, where we read through the text of this play for future use towards an audio/stage show. We're almost done with the past, for soon we'll be into the future!  This is the Taylors play of the Ascension, where Jesus... ascends. There's a big visual/musical element to this play which we just can't do justice - and there's special effects which get... urm... messy. Let's just say, this play features injury detail.
The Beyond Shakespeare Irregulars this episode were Liz Cole, Richard Fawcett, Mark Scanlon, and Alan Scott – with host, Robert Crighton.
There are more versions of the Chester plays than you can shake a stick at - (actually there are eight) - so any text you use to follow will probably be a bit different to ours (for the sticklers, our base text was H, except for play five, where it was just easier to go for a group text (D-or Hm, A, R, B) composite - though some readings may have been borrowed from all). However, you don't necessarily need to worry about such things, so here's a nice friendly modern spelling version we found online. http://groups.chass.utoronto.ca/plspls/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/index.html

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

Discussing: T is for Tarlton - Early Modern Celebrity with Sophie Shorland.
This episode is a discussion with Sophie Shorland about Early Modern Celebrity - specifically looking at Sir Philip Sidney, Moll Cutpurse and - mostly - Richard Tarlton. We look at stories of his life, the myths and half truths, and are introduced to his animal avatar.
With recordings of our workshops on Tarlton's Jests - with Leigh MacDonald, Mark Scanlon and Hugh Weller-Poley. We spend much time going over the story of Bankes his horse - of which there is much more to be said in the future.
Sophie is an Early Career Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study, University of Warwick. She is currently working on celebrity culture in the late Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, exploring what celebrity looked like before the newspaper. She has published in Renaissance Studies, Early Modern Literary Studies, and is currently editing a special issue of the journal Exchanges on metaphorical and literal cannibalisms. Her other research interests include the performance of premodern power, domestic tragedy, and early modern women’s writing.
If you'd like to have a look at Tarlton's Jests, there is an incomplete edition here - we're hunting for more. https://archive.org/details/tarltonsjestsan00chetgoog/page/n6
NB: Be warned there is some discussion of cock fighting and bear baiting towards the end of the episode.
Support this podcast by going to www.patreon.com/beyondshakespeare, or follow us @BeyondShakes on Twitter, or visit our website www.beyondshakespeare.org

Spoilers: The Life and Death of Jack Straw (Act 1, Scene 4)
Jack Straw is not a long play, but that won't stop us going into ridiculous amounts of detail about it. Act 1, scene 4 sees the crown get it together with this whole rebel alliance thing. Enter the royal family to the various lords we've already met. Something, at last, is going to be done. The scene is illustrated via a rough cut of our soon to be released full cast audio adaptation - which languishes in the edit as we post this.
The rough cut of Act 1 scene 4 to The Life and Death of Jack Straw is performed by Gillian Horgan as the Queen Mother, Heydn McCabe as The Treasurer, Pamela Flanagan as the Usher, Adam Thurkettle as the Bishop, Geir Madland as Sir John Morton, and Nemonee Stone as Richard II.  Introduced by your host Robert Crighton.

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 follow the text online - though some texts are better than others. There are, to our current knowledge, only two modern editions - the print on demand acting edition published by Groundling Press which can be found at their website http://www.groundlingpress.com/, and the almost impossible to get edition edited by Stephen Longstaffe (Mellen Critical Editions, 2002). Online versions exist - there is a copy of a fascimile at archive.org, which serves as a foundation https://archive.org/details/cu31924013324540/page/n9
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: Love Feigned and Unfeigned (A Fragmentary play c.1540 and 1560)
Another fragment - and it's a not so short fragment, a couple hundred lines - and it's a play dancing around ideas of conditional and unconditional love (to God, to your friends, etc...) as well as the motivations of deceit and the pretence of friendship. There's more to mine from this than this recording suggests, it was at the end of a session, we were a bit short and cynical about it - but it's, as ever, a start... there is room to create a framework to fit this within as part of a future entertainment.
You can follow the text by following a link in the notes - I've only found one published edition in the depths of Archive.org, but other publications may be available. https://archive.org/details/collections01malouoft/page/n11
The Irregulars were Liz Cole, Alan Scott, Mark Scanlon and Richard Fawcett 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 follow us on Twitter @BeyondShakes or even go to our website: https://beyondshakespeare.org

Discussing: Volpone by Ben JonsonHost Robert Crighton discusses with Charlie Day of Fresh Life Theatre Company their production of Ben Jonson's play Volpone. The show is coming to Bath in October 2019, and there is a kickstarter campaign to help get it on - support them and their work via the links below. And if you'd like to listen to the prologue to the play - it can be heard here.Support this podcast by going to www.patreon.com/beyondshakespeare, or follow us @BeyondShakes on Twitter, or visit our website www.beyondshakespeare.org
You can find Fresh Life on Twitter @freshlifetheatr or at their website https://www.freshlifetheatre.co.uk/index.html

Tickets for the show can be found here - https://bathboxoffice.org.uk/whatson/volpone/

And the kickstarter can be found here - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/volponeflt/volpone

Spoilers: The Life and Death of Jack Straw (Act 1, Scene 3)
Jack Straw is not a long play, but that won't stop us going into ridiculous amounts of detail about it. Act 1, scene 3 returns us to the midst of the rebels - and they've been doing a little bit of looting, and have raided at least one castle. The scene is illustrated via a rough cut of our soon to be released full cast audio adaptation - which languishes in the edit as we post this.
The rough cut of Act 1 scene 3 to The Life and Death of Jack Straw is performed by Pollie Hall as Jack Straw, Leigh McDonald as Wat Tyler, Hugh Weller-Poley as Tom Miller, Andy Barrett as Hob Carter, Sarah Golding as Nobs. Introduced by your host Robert Crighton.

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 follow the text online - though some texts are better than others. There are, to our current knowledge, only two modern editions - the print on demand acting edition published by Groundling Press which can be found at their website http://www.groundlingpress.com/, and the almost impossible to get edition edited by Stephen Longstaffe (Mellen Critical Editions, 2002). Online versions exist - there is a copy of a fascimile at archive.org, which serves as a foundation https://archive.org/details/cu31924013324540/page/n9
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 Chester Mystery Cycle - Play 19 (Lucas and Cleophas & Doubting Thomas)

From our Exploring workshop, where we read through the text of this play for future use towards an audio/stage show. We're into the home straight now, with the appearance of Jesus to various disciples.
The Beyond Shakespeare Irregulars this episode were Liz Cole, Richard Fawcett, Mark Scanlon, and Alan Scott – with host, Robert Crighton.
There are more versions of the Chester plays than you can shake a stick at - (actually there are eight) - so any text you use to follow will probably be a bit different to ours (for the sticklers, our base text was H, except for play five, where it was just easier to go for a group text (D-or Hm, A, R, B) composite - though some readings may have been borrowed from all). However, you don't necessarily need to worry about such things, so here's a nice friendly modern spelling version we found online. http://groups.chass.utoronto.ca/plspls/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/index.html

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