The Play Podcast

The Play Podcast - 057 - Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw

Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Ivan Wise

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.

G.B. Shaw's Arms and the Man is both a sparkling romantic comedy and a telling satire of love, war and social pretension. It was Shaw's first public success as a playwright when it premiered in London in 1894, and is currently enjoying an acclaimed revival at the Orange Tree theatre in Richmond, Surrey.

I'm joined by Shaw expert Ivan Wise, who is a previous editor of The Shavian, the journal of the Shaw Society.

The Play Podcast - 056 - Good by C.P. Taylor

Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Dominic Cooke

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.

C.P. Taylor's powerful, cautionary play Good charts how an ostensibly 'good' person can become not just complicit to evil behaviour, but an active participant. Professor John Halder's creeping moral compromise as he joins the Nazi elite in 1930's Germany is a disturbing reminder of the dangers of populist political crusades.

The play is currently being revived at the Harold Pinter theatre in London with David Tennant in the role of John Halder, and I'm delighted to be joined by the production's director, Dominic Cooke, to explore the contemporary resonances of this provocative play.

The Play Podcast - 055 - Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind

Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Professor Karen Leeder

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.

Frank Wedekind's dark, expressionist play Spring Awakening is a cautionary portrait of adolescent angst and rebellion against oppressive social strictures and family pressures. Its frank depiction of sex and violence remains shocking more than 130 years after it was written, and it is the unlikely source of the award-winning modern musical of the same name.

I'm delighted to be joined by Professor Karen Leeder to explore the contemporary controversies and enduring relevance of this extraordinary play.

The Play Podcast - 054 - The Crucible by Arthur Miller

Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Dr Stephen Marino

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.

Arthur Miller's play The Crucible recreates the terror of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 when a religious hysteria gripped the Puritan community. Miller wrote the play in 1953, when America was going through a modern witch hunt prosecuting Communist sympathisers. The play is Miller's most frequently produced, its portrait of personal betrayal and institutional tyranny being universally recognised in any time or society.

I'm delighted to welcome back to the podcast Miller expert, Dr Stephen Marino, to explore the origins and enduring relevance of Miller's powerful, cautionary play.

The Play Podcast - 053 - The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht

Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Christopher Haydon

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.

Bertolt Brecht wrote The Caucasian Chalk Circle in 1944 while in exile in the United States as a parable about the chaos and costs of war. After his return to East Germany in 1948 he updated the play to set it in the context of post-war Communism. His fable is both a theatrical fairy-tale and a political allegory.

I'm delighted to welcome the director of the first major London revival for 25 years, Christopher Haydon, artistic director of the Rose Theatre to discuss this challenging, complicated, compelling, even crazy play.

The Play Podcast - 052 - The Seagull by Anton Chekhov

Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Dan Rebellato

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.

Anton Chekhov's play The Seagull was a disaster on its opening night in St Petersburg in 1896. The unsettling blend of comedy and pathos that confused the critics and audience were subsequently recognised as seminal in the evolution of modern drama. I'm delighted to welcome back playwright and professor, Dan Rebellato, to talk about Chekhov and his timeless play.

The Play Podcast - 051 - Closer by Patrick Marber

Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Clare Lizzimore

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.

Patrick Marber's play Closer depicts a merry-go-round of metropolitan relationships powered by sex and betrayal. Its clever and candid dissection of the destructive power of sexual desire hit a contemporary nerve when it premiered in 1997. Clare Lizzimore, director of a new production at the Lyric Hammersmith, joins me to explore how the play's unflinching sexual politics has aged twenty-five years later.

The Play Podcast - 050 - Jersualem by Jez Butterworth

Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: David Ian Rabey

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.

Jez Butterworth's play Jersualem is one of the landmark plays of the 21st century, acclaimed for both its lyrical and elusive text exploring English identity, and for its electrifying theatrical production. The once-in-a lifetime performance is happily being repeated with the current West End revival, and it seems fitting that our 50th episode be devoted to this remarkable play. I'm joined by David Ian Rabey, Emeritus Professor at Aberystwith University and author of The Theatre and Films of Jez Butterworth.

The Play Podcast - 049 - Jitney by August Wilson

Host: Douglas Schatz Guests: Wil Johnson and Tony Marshall

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.

Although August Wilson's play Jitney is set in the office of an unlicensed taxi company in Pittsburgh in 1977, its themes, and the relationships and hopes and dreams of its characters are universal. The play is part of Wilson's reknowned ten play series known as the Pittsburgh Cycle, which charts the black American experience through each decade of the twentieth century.

I'm joined in this episode by the actors Wil Johnson and Tony Marshall, who are currently starring in the Old Vic's vibrant new production of the play.

The Play Podcast - 048 - Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare

Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Lucy Bailey

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 Much Ado About Nothing is rightly renowned for the "merry war" of wits between the reluctant lovers Beatrice and Benedick, but alongside their brilliant partnership, there is also a darker story of misogyny and betrayal that gives the play a more complex and challenging character.

Lucy Bailey, director of the joyous production currently running at the Globe Theatre in London joins me to review this romantic rollercoaster.