Beyond Shakespeare

Hello! It's time for our next Revels season - discount early bird season tickets are now on sale for our wonderful patrons, become a £1 tier patron to get a cheap rate season pass. Or, wait a week, and free subscribers and those one our mailing list get access too.
There are four/five plays in the season, all announced on this episode.

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. 

We have a new discussion with Professor Laurie Johnson about Leicester's Men, the playing company that ran throughout the early Elizabethan years of professional playing, whose make up, structure and plays have been difficult to pin down. But luckily, Professor Johnson has written a rather excellent book pinning all these as close to down as we might ever get. This was recorded a year ago - apologies to Laurie for the wait!
It's currently (still) a tad bit pricey, but hopefully it will drop down to a more affordable price. https://www.cambridge.org/gb/universitypress/subjects/literature/renaissance-and-early-modern-literature/leicesters-men-and-their-plays-early-elizabethan-playing-company-and-its-legacy?format=HB 

Laurie Johnson is Professor in English and Cultural Studies at the University of Southern Queensland and, since 2016, has served as President of the Australian and New Zealand Shakespeare Association. He is the author of Shakespeare's Lost Playhouse: Eleven Days at Newington Butts (2018) and has written extensively in areas related to cultural history, literary studies, and Shakespeare's theatre. 

You can also hear us having a chat about The Playhouse at Newington Butts - https://audioboom.com/posts/7052291-discussing-the-playhouse
Follow up on possible Leicester's Men plays with a playlist on William Wager - and on Gammer Gurton's Needle.

Our patrons received this episode a month in July 2024 - nearly a year 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. 

It'll be a bit quiet on the pod this week, as we're doing some live shows - tickets available below - but we thought we should update you on some of the online options for our patrons, which you might want to go for. We're doing a basic live stream of rehearsal runs from Tuesday this week, around 3pm each day - become a patron and grab the link. Otherwise, more on this next week when it's all over.

Information about the archiving of Entertaining Henry - open access
Patreon live rehearsal link and details (you will need to be a patreon from £1 or more)

Entertaining Henry is a co-production with The Quay Theatre and Beyond Shakespeare...
Let us take you through a whistle-stop tour of the entertainment world from Henry’s reign: from his youthful days to his more fractious later life, we will share the history of his reign through the plays he and his subjects enjoyed.
Play along with our Tudor Bingo Card, catch the pop-up merry tales, and enjoy entertainments fit for a king!
Friday 20th June at 7.30pm
Show 1 - Welcome to Henry’s Court! (1509 to 1520's)
We welcome you to the Court of the newly-crowned King Henry! Let us introduce you to all the major players on and off stage, the rules of the court, and perform some of the earliest plays to survive from his reign – plays designed to curb Henry’s boisterous ways. https://quaysudbury.com/events/entertaining-henry-show-1-welcome-to-henrys-court/
Saturday 21st June at 7.30pm
Show 2 - Reformation: More vs Cromwell (1520’s to 1530’s)
As the Reformation hit England, different factions created dramas around the political rifts at court. The literary set that orbited Thomas More presented traditional debate on one side, whilst the rising star of Thomas Cromwell commissioned his players to write revelations on the other. https://quaysudbury.com/events/entertaining-henry-show-2-reformation-more-vs-cromwell/
Sunday 22nd June at 7.30pm
Show 3 - Snail Fight! And Other Tudor Shenanigans (1530’s to 1547)
We close our festival with some of the sillier plays from the end of Henry’s reign – featuring a sword fight with a snail, an ecclesiastical bust up in a church, and the epic conquest of the monster Tediousness!
https://quaysudbury.com/events/entertaining-henry-show-3-snail-fight-and-other-tudor-shenanegans/

Season discount for each show - £14 for one show, £26 for two shows, £36 for all three
Book Tickets Now for Show 1!
Book Tickets Now for Show 2!
Book Tickets Now for Show 3!
Ticket discount is applied if you add additional shows from the season.
Box Office: quaysudbury.com or call 01787 374 745
The Quay Theatre, Quay Lane, Sudbury CO10 2AN

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 social media usually @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. 

Professor Liz Oakley-Brown returns to the pod to discuss the play Thersites (c.1537) attributed to Nicholas Udall and based on a dialogue by from Joannes Ravisius Textor - the play features a snail fight, and much more - part of our build up to our season of Henrician drama. This episode was recorded live on zoom on Tuesday 10th June at 7.15pm 2025.
For more on the medieval manuscript side of things - over on BBC Sounds (where available) is Knight Fights Giant Snail. We reference Marie Axton's Three Tudor Classical Interludes which is the only modern edition of the play that we are aware of.
We will be staging Thersites live on Sunday 22nd June 2025 at the Quay Theatre - tickets for the show are available here. But if that's not possible we have two exploring sessions online - a vanilla First Look, and a super charged Second Look.

CW: We keep this fairly Universal, but towards the end we do discuss a death.

Entertaining Henry is a co-production with The Quay Theatre and Beyond Shakespeare...
Let us take you through a whistle-stop tour of the entertainment world from Henry’s reign: from his youthful days to his more fractious later life, we will share the history of his reign through the plays he and his subjects enjoyed.
Play along with our Tudor Bingo Card, catch the pop-up merry tales, and enjoy entertainments fit for a king!
Friday 20th June at 7.30pm
Show 1 - Welcome to Henry’s Court! (1509 to 1520's)
We welcome you to the Court of the newly-crowned King Henry! Let us introduce you to all the major players on and off stage, the rules of the court, and perform some of the earliest plays to survive from his reign – plays designed to curb Henry’s boisterous ways. https://quaysudbury.com/events/entertaining-henry-show-1-welcome-to-henrys-court/
Saturday 21st June at 7.30pm
Show 2 - Reformation: More vs Cromwell (1520’s to 1530’s)
As the Reformation hit England, different factions created dramas around the political rifts at court. The literary set that orbited Thomas More presented traditional debate on one side, whilst the rising star of Thomas Cromwell commissioned his players to write revelations on the other. https://quaysudbury.com/events/entertaining-henry-show-2-reformation-more-vs-cromwell/
Sunday 22nd June at 7.30pm
Show 3 - Snail Fight! And Other Tudor Shenanigans (1530’s to 1547)
We close our festival with some of the sillier plays from the end of Henry’s reign – featuring a sword fight with a snail, an ecclesiastical bust up in a church, and the epic conquest of the monster Tediousness!
https://quaysudbury.com/events/entertaining-henry-show-3-snail-fight-and-other-tudor-shenanegans/

Season discount for each show - £14 for one show, £26 for two shows, £36 for all three
Book Tickets Now for Show 1!
Book Tickets Now for Show 2!
Book Tickets Now for Show 3!
Ticket discount is applied if you add additional shows from the season.
Box Office: quaysudbury.com or call 01787 374 745
The Quay Theatre, Quay Lane, Sudbury CO10 2AN

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 social media usually @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 Two 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
Pamela Flanagan - Ascanius
Lynsey Beauchamp - Ilioneus
Sarah Blake - Venus
Keith Hill - Achates
Alexandra Kataigida - Cloanthus
Emma Kemp - Cupid
Simon Nader - Sergestus
The host was Robert Crighton.

CW: Discussion of war trauma, deaths, and graphic descriptions of injury detail.

Our patrons received this episode in April 2025 - over two 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. 

As part of the run up to Entertaining Henry we have this chat about Thomas More, prompted by Dr Joanne Paul's latest book on his life - it's a Venn diagram of a discussion, between the life of More, and the theatre world around him. Recorded live on zoom - there will be another live discussion in under two weeks time, details below.

Thomas More: A Life and Death in Tudor England by Dr Joanne Paul is coming to UK bookshops this week, and the US in a couple of months (I believe) - do support your local bookstore, or order from somewhere responsible like... https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/thomas-more-a-life-dr-joanne-paul/7765640?ean=9781405953603

For more on the plays of John Heywood and a little on John Rastell - here's a handy playlist.

Next Discussing Live: Snail Fight! with Professor Liz Oakley-BrownEntertaining Henry is a co-production with The Quay Theatre and Beyond Shakespeare...
Let us take you through a whistle-stop tour of the entertainment world from Henry’s reign: from his youthful days to his more fractious later life, we will share the history of his reign through the plays he and his subjects enjoyed.
Play along with our Tudor Bingo Card, catch the pop-up merry tales, and enjoy entertainments fit for a king!
Friday 20th June at 7.30pm
Show 1 - Welcome to Henry’s Court! (1509 to 1520's)
We welcome you to the Court of the newly-crowned King Henry! Let us introduce you to all the major players on and off stage, the rules of the court, and perform some of the earliest plays to survive from his reign – plays designed to curb Henry’s boisterous ways. https://quaysudbury.com/events/entertaining-henry-show-1-welcome-to-henrys-court/
Saturday 21st June at 7.30pm
Show 2 - Reformation: More vs Cromwell (1520’s to 1530’s)
As the Reformation hit England, different factions created dramas around the political rifts at court. The literary set that orbited Thomas More presented traditional debate on one side, whilst the rising star of Thomas Cromwell commissioned his players to write revelations on the other. https://quaysudbury.com/events/entertaining-henry-show-2-reformation-more-vs-cromwell/
Sunday 22nd June at 7.30pm
Show 3 - Snail Fight! And Other Tudor Shenanigans (1530’s to 1547)
We close our festival with some of the sillier plays from the end of Henry’s reign – featuring a sword fight with a snail, an ecclesiastical bust up in a church, and the epic conquest of the monster Tediousness!
https://quaysudbury.com/events/entertaining-henry-show-3-snail-fight-and-other-tudor-shenanegans/

Season discount for each show - £14 for one show, £26 for two shows, £36 for all three
Book Tickets Now for Show 1!
Book Tickets Now for Show 2!
Book Tickets Now for Show 3!
Ticket discount is applied if you add additional shows from the season.
Box Office: quaysudbury.com or call 01787 374 745
The Quay Theatre, Quay Lane, Sudbury CO10 2AN

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 social media usually @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 One of Dido, Queen of Carthage by Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Nashe (discuss, 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.
We know we said Robert would be doing briefer Spoilers episodes, but that clearly didn't happen...
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.
Kit McGuire – Aeneas
Karim Kronfli - Iarbus
Pamela Flanagan - Ascanius
Lynsey Beauchamp - Ilioneus
Sarah Blake - Venus
Keith Hill - Jupiter / Achates
Alexandra Kataigida - Cloanthus
Liza Graham – kinda Hermes
Simon Nader - Sergestus
The host was Robert Crighton, who was also an accidental Ganymede.

Our patrons received this episode a month in March 2025 - over two 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 Edward II by Christopher Marlowe, recorded live at our Revels season on Tuesday 12th December 2023. With Pamela Flanagan as Isabella.

Our patrons received the scene within this episode in January 2024 - 17 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. 

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.
Chapter Eighteen: A question put forth by Doctor Faustus to his Spirit, concerning Astronomy.
 
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 April 2024 - approx. 13 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.

This discussion is with organiser Matthew Sergi, Associate Professor of English (Medieval Drama), University of Toronto about the York Plays 2025. Performing on Saturday 7th June 2025, (8th if there is rain) starting at 6am will be 17 performance groups who will present all the York Plays, repeating their performances on replica wagon stages.
As ever with these discussions, we go on a number of tangents, but they're really good tangents.
Find out more at yorkplays.ca where there is a host of useful information - and go, if you can. Seriously GO! It's going to be epic!

We mention in the episode the editor of the texts for the cycle, Christina M. Fitzgerald - who we interviewed back in 2019! https://audioboom.com/posts/7297248-discussing-the-york-corpus-christi-play

Our patrons received this episode a week 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 social media @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/@BeyondShakespeare
The Beyond Shakespeare Podcast is hosted and produced by Robert Crighton.