
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


Imagine where we’d be without Shakespeare’s plays. It’s difficult to contemplate now. But it was thanks to another man that many of them were brought to life.
Today, Richard Burbage is a not a household name. But he should be. He’s the man for whom many of the great Shakespearean roles were created. One of the founding members of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, playing at the newly built Globe in 1599, he’s one of the foundations upon which British theatre was built. Andrew Dickson talks to leading actors, rummages among the archives and dissects some of the greatest parts in acting to discover Burbage’s crucial role – and realises that without Richard Burbage, there could be no Shakespeare.
Producer: Penny Murphy
By BBC Radio 34.4
5151 ratings
Imagine where we’d be without Shakespeare’s plays. It’s difficult to contemplate now. But it was thanks to another man that many of them were brought to life.
Today, Richard Burbage is a not a household name. But he should be. He’s the man for whom many of the great Shakespearean roles were created. One of the founding members of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, playing at the newly built Globe in 1599, he’s one of the foundations upon which British theatre was built. Andrew Dickson talks to leading actors, rummages among the archives and dissects some of the greatest parts in acting to discover Burbage’s crucial role – and realises that without Richard Burbage, there could be no Shakespeare.
Producer: Penny Murphy

7,608 Listeners

298 Listeners

1,048 Listeners

5,480 Listeners

1,798 Listeners

613 Listeners

302 Listeners

1,756 Listeners

1,042 Listeners

2,098 Listeners

483 Listeners

267 Listeners

578 Listeners

297 Listeners

826 Listeners

135 Listeners

159 Listeners

239 Listeners

45 Listeners

184 Listeners

3,159 Listeners

725 Listeners

81 Listeners

340 Listeners