Shakespeare and Pals: Recapping the Bard

Is Henry V great? Or propaganda? It's great propaganda!

In Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare invented the modern romantic comedy. Now he invents the modern war film. Henry V fights the valiant, villainous French with a country-crossing army of ethnically diverse warriors (English, Scottish, Irish and Welsh). 

Does this patriotic crowd-pleaser still work in our more cynical times? Is it patriotic at all?

Join us to find out!

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Sources: 

The Oxford Shakespeare: Henry V (Oxford University Press)

Shakespeare: The Critical Heritage, edited by Brian Vickers (Routledge)

Bringing back the explicit tag for this one!

The ladies of Ancient Greece are fed up with the war. Well, you know what men love more than killing each other? Sex! Greek citizenesses are going on a sex-strike till the peace.

Comedy ages notoriously badly, but is Aristophanes' edgy, bawdy, snappy satire still a hit? Join us to find out!

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Sources: 

Lysistrata and Other Plays, by Aristophanes, trans. Alan H Sommerstein (Penguin Books)

Lysistrata, by Aristophanes, trans. Jack Lyndsay (Perseus Digital Library)

Believe Your Girlfriend: The Play

Benedict likes Beatrice, and Beatrice likes Benedict, but Benedict and Beatrice don't like that they like each other, so their friends trick them into getting together. Meanwhile, Claudio likes Hero, and Hero likes Claudio, but Don John doesn't like people being happy, so he tricks Claudio into thinking Hero is cheating on him. Claudio... does not take it well.

"Romeo and Juliet" was a comedy that became a tragedy. "Much Ado About Nothing" is a comedy that becomes a tragedy and becomes a comedy again. Does it work? Join us to find out!

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Sources: 

The Oxford Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing (Oxford University Press)

Shakespeare: The Critical Heritage, edited by Brian Vickers (Routledge)

Gay Henry IV! Except not really... Except very much yes!

Gus Van Sant's classic of queer cinema recontextualises Henry IV into the world of gay hustlers. Prince Hal is a trust fund kid slumming it, and Poins is our narcoleptic viewpoint character. With lines directly adapted from Henry IV, and sequences remixed from Orson Welles' Chimes at Midnight, Gus Van Sant rams Henry IV into modern day.

Does it work? Join us to find out!

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Sources: 

Gus Van Sant's My Own Private Idaho (1991)

Shakespeare's only true sequel, a play that depends on its prequel. Does it work? Are the character arcs continued and deepened? Or does this basically redo the previous play but with less focus? Join us to discuss King Henry IV, Part 2!

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Sources: 

The Oxford Shakespeare: King Henry IV, Part 2 (Oxford University Press)

Shakespeare: The Critical Heritage, edited by Brian Vickers (Routledge)

What if the comic relief was the main character?

The Chimes and Midnight reframes the whole story around Prince Hal's buddy Falstaff. No longer a coming of age story, but a portrait of slow decline of an old thief. This comedy drama is considered one of the greatest Shakespeare films ever made, and Orson Welles one of the greatest Falstaffs. Does it live up to its reputation? Join us to find out!

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You ever have to choose between your King dad and your thief dad?

King Henry IV's got two problems - rebelling nobles and a rebellious son. Prince Hal spends all his time with low lives in taverns. Could Hal ever possibly rise to the occasion and save the day?

Does Shakespeare's coming-of-age, war comedy still hold up? Join Michael and Sophie and find out!

Make sure to subscribe and share this podcast! Comments and questions can be sent to [email protected]

Sources: 

The Oxford Shakespeare: King Henry IV, Part 1 (Oxford University Press)

Shakespeare: The Critical Heritage, edited by Brian Vickers (Routledge)

Boy loves girl. Boy’s father thinks the girl isn’t rich enough. Boy pretends to be in love with a drag king.

We’re bringing back the “explicit” tag just for this episode. Tommy M and Tommy D’s saucy talents are on full display in this bawdy City Comedy. There are more innuendos than you can shake your rapier at. Is this play only memorable for its titular cross-dresser, or is there more meat on its bones?

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Sources:

Librivox production of The Roaring Girl https://librivox.org/the-roaring-girl-by-thomas-middleton-and-thomas-dekker/

English Renaissance Drama: A Norton Anthology, eds. David Bevington et al. (W. W. Norton & Company)

One of Shakespeare’s great… comedies????

Bassanio needs some cash to impress the wealthy heiress Portia. This couldn’t possibly lead to his best friend getting imprisoned and disemboweled.

One of Shakespeare's great plays, full of poetry and incident and nuance, and Romance with a capital R. Is it toppled by the antisemitism at its centre?

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Sources: 

The Oxford Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice (Oxford University Press)

Shakespeare: The Critical Heritage, edited by Brian Vickers (Routledge)

It’s Romeo and Juliet as an anime! What more do you want?

It’s Shakespeare’s tale, but not as we know it. Verona is a far future city in the sky, and all the nobles ride pegasi. Years ago, the evil Lord Montague massacred the Capulets – all but one. Juliet survived, and now spends her adolescence cross-dressing as a boy and moonlighting as a masked vigilante. But how will her life change when she meets Romeo at ball?

Join us for flying horses, daring-do, and shoujo romance!

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Romeo X Juliet can be watched on Crunchyroll