Episode 038: Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Professor Emma Smith

The Play Podcast is a podcast dedicated to exploring the greatest new and classic plays. In each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We discuss the play’s origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing.

William Shakespeare's Macbeth is a tragedy of love, ambition and betrayal, propelled by relentless energy and shocking violence, and infused by an air of the supernatural. It has some of the most memorable scenes in all of theatre: the witches chanting over their cauldron, the ghost of the murdered Banquo haunting Macbeth, Lady Macbeth sleepwalking and wringing her bloodless hands. 

Professor Emma Smith from Hertford College, Oxford, joins us to explore Shakespeare’s notorious ‘Scottish play’.