Tabling: The Podcast

The deposition scene was published in 1608 for the first time in the 4th quarto. But Richard II premièred in 1595 and had its first publication in 1597 without the deposition scene…how dangerous is this scene!?!

Samantha Blinn, Jane May, Nicholas Koy Santillo, Sam Gilroy, Ellyn Heald, Sam Gibbs & Ariana Karp had a lot of fun this week discussing: 

• The comedy of the glove throwing prelude
• The drama and danger of changing political allegiances 
• The theatricality of politics
• Private moment of Richard II in the middle of the deposition/abdication

David Tennant in the RSC production of RIchard II directed by Gregory Doran. Footage here.

This week Samantha Blinn, Jane May, Nicholas Koy Santillo, Sam Gilroy, Ellyn Heald, Sam Gibbs & Ariana Karp examine:

• Fissures within Bolingbroke's faction
• Richard's first and second 'Aria' moments…"For god's sake, let us sit upon the ground" and "Down, down I come like glistering Phaeton" 
• Performance history of Richard II
• Power through words typically feminized versus the 'masculine' power through action 
• Cycle of ascension and descension and the balance of the two
• Systems of Elizabethan imagery working upon each other: the four elements, the five humors
• The instability of identity through language

Join Jane May, Sam Gibbs, Ellyn Heald, Nicholas Koy Santillo and Ariana Karp as we tackle Act II and discuss the Queen and her relationship to Richard's advisors: Bushy, Bagot and Green. We talk about Shakespeare's device of conveying treasonous information from one character to another within both this and other history plays. We ponder whether Richard II could be called…a family drama. We also delve into John of Gaunt's fabulous "this England" speech and discuss the bumbling Duke of York! 

Hans Holbein the Younger's famous painting "The Ambassadors." Note the perspective manipulation on the skull in the bottom center of the picture and compare to the language of Bushy in Act II, scene II as he discusses 'perspectives with Queen Isabel. 

Our participants for this episode are Jane May, Sam Gibbs, Brittany Chandler, Nicholas Koy Santillo & Ariana Karp. Join us as we scratch our heads discussing the concept of primogeniture, puzzling through the rules and who is related to whom. For a very thorough Richard II genealogy, click here. 

Other topics include: 

• Divine right of kings
• The birth of obsessive interiority 
• Classism
• The move from feudalism and chivalry to modern politics
• Ascension and Descension 
• Private moments vs public moments vs private moments in public 

Ceremony and formalism in Act I. 1965 production: Alan Howard as Bolingbroke, John Neville as Richard in the centre, and John Tordoff as Mowbray

Join Sam Gibbs, Brittany Chandler, Nicholas Koy Santillo and Ariana Karp as we delve into Shakespeare's lyrical masterpiece, Richard II. In this episode we introduce the genre of "the history play." We also situate Richard II as the beginning of the Shakespeare history tetrology commonly known as "The Henriad". This is also one of Shakespeare's only plays that is completely in verse! What is the significance of that? 

We discuss the production history of Richard, the movement from recreations of medieval pageantry and pomp to the psychological realism of the last 20 years. The lens of focus of this production will be on Kingship as a role to be played and the inherent theatricality of the play. 

Richard Pasco and Ian Richardson from John Barton's 1973 RSC production of Richard II. Bolingbroke and Richard as mirrors of each other, the two actors switched off who played Richard II and who played Bolingbroke each night.

Join Jane May, Jack Collard, Brandon Petty, Cori Hundt, Sam Gilroy, Kelly Strandemo, Will Wilder, Samantha Blinn, Brittany Chandler & Ariana Karp of the Ducdame Ensemble as we explore Lope de Vega's classic Fuente Ovejuna. We explore the political landscape of medieval Iberia, the Order of Calatrava and the nature of Christian knighthood, the religious schisms within Spain between Catholicism, Judaism and Islam, the Reconquista of Spain and the nature of history plays! 

Come and see this production live! We open this week - purchase tickets here

Join the Ducdame Ensemble as they read through Lope de Vega's Fuente Ovejuna! Our participants this week are Jane May, Jack Collard, Brandon Petty, Cori Hundt, Michael J. Connolly, Sam Gilroy, Kelly Strandemo, Will Wilder, Brittany Chandler & Ariana Karp. 

Come and see this production live! We open this week - purchase tickets here !

Nicholas Koy Santillo, Jane May, Brittany Chandler & Ariana Karp conclude the discussion of A Midsummer Night's Dream with their musings upon Act V. These include, but are certainly not limited to:

• The accessibility of the mechanicals language and characters
• Drama vs Satire
• Doubling of Theseus/Oberon & Hippolyta/Titania & Philostrate/Puck 
• How Shakespeare exposes the very rhetorical techniques he masterfully employs in his other work and turns it upside down in the Mechanicals's play. 
• In the end, order and poetry is restored, but does Puck destabilize our order?
• We finish discussing Midsummer's place in our collective cultural consciousness. 

To our dear listeners: What is your most iconic/favourite line from Midsummer? Tweet it to us @tablingthepodcast or email us at [email protected]

Also for a contemporary equivalent to the Mechanicals play we want to give a big shout out to Mischief Theatre for The Play that Goes Wrong and congratulations on their Olivier win this year! If you are in London, go see it! (& on a related note….GO LAMDA!)