It’s Romeo and Juliet as an anime! What more do you want?It’s Shakespeare’s tale, but not as we know it. Verona is a far future city in the sky, and all the nobles ride pegasi. Years ago, the evil Lord Montague massacred the Capulets – all bu

025 The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Kings: King John (1596)

Mar 28th, 2024 1h 53m

The one that you forgot Shakespeare did.King John just can’t catch a break. He’s got challengers to the throne, war with France, and now the Pope’s getting on his back. Desperate times call for desperate measures, which include knocking off hi

024 Mr Sandman, Bring Me a Midsummer Nights' Dream: Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman #19 and #75

Feb 22nd, 2024 1h 20m

Shakespeare stole all his ideas… from the god of DreamsOne of the greatest comic book series of all time, Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman plays with almost all human culture, so how could Gaiman overlook Shakespeare? In The Sandman #19, Shakespeare

023 This is a comedy!?: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1596)

Jan 25th, 2024 1h 51m

It’s the one with the donkey-headed tradie!An Athenian hero with his Amazon war-bride condemns a young girl to death or nunnery, so young lovers flee into the forest, followed by two other young lovers who don’t love each other yet, so a fairy

022 “A pound of your fair flesh, Astro Boy!”: Osamu Tezuka’s ベニスの商人/Merchant of Venice (1959)

Dec 28th, 2023 1h 31m

The Walt Disney of Japan took a break from Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion.Did you know Osamu Tezuka adapted The Merchant of Venice? It’s like if Walt Disney adapted Crime and Punishment… which Osamu Tezuka also did… Tezuka had range! Does

021 Disaster Gays: Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II (1593)

Nov 23rd, 2023 2h 3m

Gayer than Shakespeare – Got your attention?Finding queer subtext in renaissance plays usually takes digging. Not here though. Marlowe has his King and boytoy howling sweet nothings to each other. And this is the Christian 1590s – surely these

021 Disaster Gays: Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II (1593)

Nov 23rd, 2023 2h 3m

020 The Prequels Were Better: Richard II (1595)

Oct 26th, 2023 2h 10m

The Prequel Tetralogy begins!Before the Richard III, before Henry VI, before the War of the Roses, there was unmanly, luxurious Richard II. Under his all-powerful negligence, a squabble between nobles becomes a cause for rebellion against the

019 Five Tudor Sonnets and Us Being Idiots

Sep 28th, 2023 57m 6s

Turns out we’re publishing this one…We’re going on an unstructured ramble about the most structured poetic form. This month, we’re looking at five Tudor sonnets – and only two of them are Shakespeare!A sonnet might just be fourteen, but t

018 Onii-san~!!: John Ford’s ”’Tis Pity She’s a W****” (1629)

Aug 24th, 2023 1h 59m

We really have been trying to make this podcast more family friendly...Here we have an edgy take on Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet’s problem was there families were too far apart. Giovanni and Annabella’s families are too close. They’re th

017 Boy Meets Girl, Boy and Girl Die: Romeo and Juliet

Jul 27th, 2023 2h 4m

Here’s a hot-take: Romeo and Juliet is a love story.Shakespeare’s tragic love story is so iconic I don’t even need to say anything about it. You’ve Romeo and Juliet with New York gangs and garden gnomes. But join us to see all the details and

016 Carry On College Princes: Love’s Labour’s Lost

Jun 29th, 2023 2h 33m

You have no idea what this one’s about, do you? Great title though.Would you believe this romantic comedy about four nobles trying to become celibate scholars actually holds up quite well? Would you believe it has some of Shakespeare’s feistie

015 Shakespeare’s Edgelord Phase: Titus Andronicus

May 25th, 2023 1h 56m

This one gets all the trigger warnings: rape, murder, racism, amputation, cannibalism, questionable anachronisms, and probably a few others I’ve forgotten. Does this draw you in? It certainly scared off centuries of Shakespeare admirers. Some e

014 Atrocities Roman Style: Seneca’s “Medea” and “Thyestes”

Apr 27th, 2023 1h 31m

We’re forced to read “Hamlet” at school. Shakespeare was forced to read “Thyestes”. Family squabbles turning hyperviolent has a long history, nowhere more violent than in these Ancient Roman classics. Do Seneca’s bloody plays still have power

013 Poor Artists Imitate, Great Artists Steal: The Comedy of Errors

Mar 30th, 2023 1h 51m

How does a 400-year-old play feel more old-fashioned than a 2000-year-old one? Shakespeare brings family values, civic virtue, and basic human decency to Plautus’ farce of selfishness and hedonism.Like West Side Story to Roman and Juliet, Sh

012 2000-Years-Old But Feeling 60: Plautus’ The Brothers Menaechmus

Feb 23rd, 2023 1h 42m

You know how you were forced to read Shakespeare in school? Shakespeare was forced to read Plautus. Any Renaissance writer worth his salt riffed on this Roman Republican comedian. Shakespeare liked this play so much he based The Comedy of Error

011 The First Masterpiece: Richard III

Jan 26th, 2023 1h 57m

Finally! We’re getting to the masterpieces. If Shakespeare had died before this one, do you think this podcast would exist? No! You wouldn’t even have heard of Shakespeare.For hundreds of years after release, critics of this play thought it

010 Joan of Arc’s in This One! Henry VI, Part 1

Dec 29th, 2022 1h 37m

When you get to the end of the story, where do you go? The beginning!At the end of Henry VI, Part 3, Henry was dead and Richard III was ascendant. Now Shakespeare gives us a Star Wars-style prequel. One question remains: Is this play as good

009 Roman Psycho: The Rape of Lucrece

Nov 24th, 2022 1h 10m

If the title isn’t content warning enough… CW: sexual assault and suicideAnother narrative poem from the master playwright. A tale of the sex scandal that undid the Roman monarchy. And also a ten-page description of a painting…Yes, the poem

008 Richard III, the early years: Henry VI, Part 3

Oct 27th, 2022 2h 17m

The War of the Roses! A pacifist King, a warrior Queen, rebellious lords, and more battles than you can shake a wooden sword at. And like Revenge of the Sith, we see the rise of one of fiction’s most famous baddies – Richard III!Is this much

007 Shakespeare’s Rival: Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine, Part 1

Sep 29th, 2022 2h 23m

The Avengers Endgame of its day! The bombastic bio-play of the Middle Eastern conqueror Timur. Written by Christopher Marlowe, smoker, spy, and Shakespeare’s best frenemy. After 400 years does this uber-popular, uber-influential hit of the Eliz

006 That Play You’ve Sort Of Heard Of: Henry VI, Part 2

Aug 26th, 2022 2h 8m

Why are we doing Part 2 before Part 1? Because like George Lucas, Shakespeare got to Part 1 later.Shakespeare's first and massively successful history play shows us the too, too pious King Henry VI surrounded by Machiavellian politicians, an

005 The Dark Souls of Poetry: Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene (Book 1)

Jul 29th, 2022 2h 40m

You up for some epic fantasy that somehow moves faster and slower than The Lord of the Rings? You up for an allegory where Pride is an ogre, Deception is a woman in makeup, and Queen Elizabeth is an elf? Edmund Spenser spins a tale of conflicte

004 Chaste-Boi and Cougar-Lady: Venus and Adonis

Jun 24th, 2022 1h 9m

Please forgive Michael's audio.... Something was wrong with the mic setupStruggling for cash during a plague, Shakespeare whipped up this risque mythological mini-epic. Venus and Adonis tells the relatable tale of a strapping young man hound

003 A Woman, Her Husband, Her Brother and A Priest: John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi

May 27th, 2022 2h 26m

An excursion away from Shakespeare to the next generation of English drama. Considered one of the greatest dramatists of the English language, John Webster's masterpiece is a dark tragedy about love, prejudice, gender and resilience.Sources