On this episode it’s all about Shakespeare. A comedy. A tragedy. And a tale of utter savagery. The many moods of William Shakespeare – starting in a happy place with actors Alison Bell and Faysal Bazzi, and Shakespeare specialist Mark Wilson, who directs them in a tale of love and mischief – Much Ado About Nothing at the Melbourne Theatre Company. Original music excerpted is by composer and sound Designer Joe Paradise Lui.

Then the Prague Shakespeare Company teams up with local company Th' Unguarded Duncan to offer a Japanese-horror influenced Titus Andronicus at Melbourne's Theatre Works. Original music excerpted is by Max Hopkins.

And we finish with a new production of King Lear with villainous sisters Goneril and Reagan, played by Charlotte Friels and Jana Zvedeniuk — who assure us that they're really not so bad. The True History of the Life and Death of King Lear & His Three Daughters is on at Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney.

Want more of the Bard? Don't miss Wherefore, Shakespeare? The Stage Show's special podcast series.