The Bicks Pod

There were lots of ways we could have looked at the topic of Shakespeare's most famous plays. A deeply analytical examination of what makes some plays rise above others. A detailed case study of a single play, like Romeo & Juliet or Hamlet, that has remained popular over the years. Or even a dismissal of the very idea of popularity.

Instead, we decided on a listicle format. What can we say? We've been moving all week, and we needed to relax and have some fun. We hope you'll have some too as we rank our top five most popular plays - if we were the sole deciders of what is popular.

Notes:

• The Shakespeareances list of most often produced plays was our basis for winnowing down the list to the most common productions for establishing our lists.

• Characters

Macbeth may be Shakespeare's second most famous play after Hamlet, and for good measure. The speeches and quotes have been seared into English-speaking culture, the phrase "Lady Macbeth" denotes all sorts of things (depending on your point of view), and it may be our most durable parable for the dangers of too much ambition. It's also one of Shakespeare's shortest plays (and the shortest tragedy), with numerous well-received film adaptations over the years to help keep it in the public consciousness.

We were lucky enough to be joined by returning fellow Shakespeare nerd (and David Lynch fan) Brittany, who brought a much needed third perspective on some of the key themes and character discussions of this play: is Lady Macbeth to be understood as a woman, or a unsexed would-be male competing in a man's world? Are the central pair a good couple? And a return to our old question: what does this play have to tell us about what makes a good king? We talk about all that and more in this episode!

Notes:

We discussed a number of film adaptations, including:

• The 2015 Justin Kurzel and Michael Fassbender version

Ancient Bickering:

Just like your high school English class discussion on this play, we were looking at the timeless question of: "Did Macbeth choose to commit his acts of heinous violence, or was it destiny as foretold by the witches?"

It is natural to wonder what Shakespeare was trying to tell us about money. He was, after all, the owner of his own theatre company, a man who made several wise financial decisions involving his land holdings in his later years. He’d grown up around money. Surely we can read into his plays and discover something of the business acumen and economic philosophy of the man, right?

Maybe. Maybe not. All the same, we’re going to look at the various depictions of money and economic concerns within the works of Shakespeare this week on The Bicks Pod.

Ancient Bickerings: If Shakespeare were writing a play based on a modern financial or economic news headline, what story would he choose?

Notes:

- For an interesting look at mentions of money in Shakespeare, check out the aptly titled "Money in Shakespeare" by Fumita Ojima

One of Shakespeare's lesser-known plays, Timon of Athens (aka "How to Make Friends and Alienate People") may not be his most engaging yarn -- being co-authored by Thomas Middleton strikes your humble podcasters as one potential reason why -- but that doesn't mean that it can't be relatable and interesting, or that it won't resonate with modern life. On the contrary! A story about an uber-wealthy man who literally gives away the entirety of his fortune to the freeloading Athenians he believes are his friends but who abandon him the moment the going gets tough...feels strikingly modern in this day of growing wealth inequity and the reality of late-stage capitalism.

What a cheery way to start...

Well, join us today for a conversation about misanthropy, greed, and wealth and how it resonates from the Ancient Greeks all the way through to the 21st century via Shakespeare and Middleton's Timon of Athens.

Notes:

- "Shakespeare and Middleton’s Co-Authorship of Timon of Athens" by Eilidh Kane

Ancient Bickerings:

Can money buy happiness?

Much like many of our modern stories, Shakespeare used the family as the core of many of his tales, so we dove into the many vagaries of families in Shakespeare's plays to see what made them tick. What was the family "supposed" to look like in Elizabethan times, and how did Shakespeare play with that idea? Which plays feature the most damaged families, and which ones, if any, feature the happy variety? Join us for a glance at the wide variety of familial creations in the Shakespeare ouvre.

Notes:

• Aidan was thinking of this little snippet of Back to the Future 2, for his speech about the lord of the manor, which is set in 2015 but is still vaguely futuristic (hence why he confused it with Fifth Element, set in the 23rd century, totally understandable of course).

Ancient Bickerings:

• Due to ongoing worries about heat exhaustion, we kept our Ancient Bickerings topic nice and simple: if you had to become a member of one of Shakespeare's families, which one would it be?

Who has three daughters, two thumbs, and one inheritance to distribute? That guy! *pointing at King Lear* That simple premise becomes the source for one of Shakespeare's most well known and tragic plays. It's also a strangely unsatisfying journey into family dysfunction and moral dilemma, so join us as we chat about the characters, themes, and structure underpinning the tragic history of King Lear!

Notes:

• Lindsay was listening to the 1994 BBC radio production of King Lear, available on YouTube. 

Ancient Bickerings:

• Which character gets the ending they deserve?

This is a very special episode dedicated to the era most near and dear to (at least one of) us: the 90s. It was an era that kicked off with parachute pants and Kurt Cobain, and ended with Friends at the top of the ratings chart and Beyoncé still a member of Destiny's Child. In-between there were a whole lot of Shakespeare movies, so we gathered together to ask a few questions.

We were joined in these questions by Brittany, a recent Twin Peaks convert and fellow Shakespeare nerd, who also has fond memories of the 90s and the cultural milieu around it. The three of us dove into some especially pertinent topics like: Why were there so many of these kinds of movies? Do the movies hold up to this day? And what do they tell us about the era in which they were made?

It's a fun chat full of more Britney Spears and N Sync references than we usually manage to fit in. Join us for this one!

Notes:

• Our semi-definitive list of 90s Shakespeare movies and adaptations can be found through this Google Doc - let us know if we missed anything!

Ancient Bickerings:

• Taking a more lighthearted approach this episode, each of us answered a simple question: which of the 90s Shakespeare movies is your favourite?

Another one of Shakespeare's problem plays, All's Well That Ends Well doesn't really, well... end well. It's a play deeply concerned about gender norms, sex, and lies, with some interesting characters who - like those in other problem plays - defy the typical conventions we usually associate with Shakespeare's better known figures. We talk about these themes and the characters that lay trapped within them, in this episode!

Notes:

• As always, the Folger accompanying essay, "All's Well That Ends Well: A Modern Perspective" is a good resource for digging into some of the thornier issues of this play.

Ancient Bickerings:

It's a simple question for this one: is all well at the end of the play? Lindsay says no, Aidan says yes. Aidan is wrong.

Shakespeare's ability to write convincing human emotions is one of the reasons why he remains such a popular playwright to this day. His works explore what it truly means to be human -- warts and all. And the warts are what we're talking about in today's episode, in which we take a look at the roots of jealousy in Shakespeare's plays. 

From the murderous rage of Othello to the living room comedy of The Merry Wives of Windsor, jealousy gets its hooks into Shakespeare's characters in ways that are both surprising and surprisingly mundane. Whether it's the ridiculous farce of Sir John Falstaff's attempts at cuckolding Masters Ford and Page, the somewhat Oedipal longing underpinning Hamlet's madness, or the shocking descent faced by Othello or The Winter's Tale's Leontes, Shakespeare has a way of making jealousy appear out of nowhere and yet feel like a natural part of the worlds he creates; one might even go so far as to say that the 'green-eyed monster' is its own unique character whenever it arrives.

Ancient Bickerings:

Who is Shakespeare's most jealous character?

Notes:

• Cuckoldry in Shakespeare (Prezi)

Jealousy, sex, revenge, racism and outcasts - Othello is a play brimming with emotional themes and characters swayed by those same emotions. We discuss all these themes, try to place them within a bit of context, then discuss how they interact as we look into one of Shakespeare's most beloved and troubling tragedies.

Notes:

• As is often the case, Folger's essay, "Othello: A Modern Perspective" gives a good overview of some of the themes in the play in a modern setting, though it doesn't tackle race as directly as the play forces you to.

Ancient Bickerings:

The question this episode was a simple one: who is the most jealous character in Othello?