The History Of European Theatre

Episode 211:

Through the last few episodes on Shakespeare’s plays, we seem to have seen a playwright in a serious mood, even when he was writing comedies. ‘Twelfth Night’ and ‘Measure For Measure’ are often referred to as having an autumnal tone, something serious underlying the comedy and of course we also have the even darker worlds of the tragedies of ‘Hamlet’ and ‘Othello’. The next play we come to from Shakespeare fits well into this group, but I choose my words carefully there because I can’t say for sure that ‘All’s Well That Ends Well’ was his ‘next’ play after ‘Measure For Measure’ as the dating of this comedy is difficult.

The dating of the play
The sources for the play
A brief summary of the plot
How Shakespeare subverts the original folk tale into a comedy
Irony in the play
The two sides of the character of Helen
What does Helen see in Bertram?
The role reversal between Helen and Bertram
The character of Bertram
The bed trick
The character of Parolas
Some examples of criticism of the play
The performance history of the play

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Episode 210:

In her new book ‘What’s in a name? How historians know Shakespeare was Shakespeare’ Susan Ammunsen sets out to show how that in early modern England it was entirely possible that a glover’s son could transform into a successful actor and playwright. She does so by detailing a society that was in a moment of flux and opportunity in many aspects of life. It is a compelling read, so I was very pleased to invite Susan onto the podcast to discuss her work.

Susan D. Amussen is Distinguished Professor of History at the University of California, Merced, whose work focuses on the intersections of gender and other structures of power in early modern England and its empire. She is author of numerous books and articles, including ‘Caribbean Exchanges: Slavery and the Transformation of English Society’; ‘Turning the World Upside Down’ and, with David Underdown, ‘Gender, Culture and Politics in Early Modern England’ ‘What’s in a name’ was published on March 24th, 2026, by Manchester University Press.

I spoke to Susan over a Zoom call from her home in California

Manchester University Press: https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526191908/

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Whats-Name-Historians-Know-Shakespeare/dp/1526191903/ref=sr_1_2?

Amazon USA: https://www.amazon.com/Whats-name-historians-know-Shakespeare/dp/1526191903/ref=sr_1_3?

Support the podcast at:
www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com
www.patreon.com/thoetp
www.ko-fi.com/thoetp

You can find an advertisement free version of the latest podcast episodes by joining on Patreon at the lowest paid tier level – that’s for just £1 per month.

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Episode 209:

After the failure of ‘Sejanus His Fall’ Jonson’s next play was a collaboration with John Marston and George Chapman, a new play for the Blackfriars’s theatre and it’s resident company of boy actors. Jonson maybe needed the collaboration to restore his confidence in his writing, although from what we know of his character perhaps more likely it was the hope of a decent payday that spurred him on. Returning to comedy must have been part of the attraction. Whatever the case the three playwrights managed to produce a comedy that was funny, thoughtful, moralistic and yet still controversial. The exact reasons for that controversy and the strength of reaction to the play from king James is now obscure to us, but at the time nearly cost the playwrights not only their liberty, but their ears as well.

The three authors of the play – who wrote what?
The first performance and printing of the play
A synopsis of the plot
The play as a response to ‘Westward Ho!’
The Prologue
The comparison of good and bad work ethics
The child acting companies and how their plays were received
Combining three types of play on ‘Eastward Ho’
The city comedy
The citizen comedy
The morality tale
Three journeys in the play
The voyage to Virginia
Gertrude’s journey
Golding’s rise in the city
Reference to the Roanoke settlement and the view of the New World
The fate of the adventurers after the shipwreck
The influence of the city of London and alchemy
The pairing of characters for dramatic effect
The theatrical nature of the play and Quicksilver’s redemption
The consequences of the play for the playwrights
The later performance history of the play

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Episode 207:

It was just about this time last year I talked to Roberta Barker about her work on the boy actors of the Elizabethan period and she mentioned at the time that she was then working on a new edition of ‘Measure for Measure’ for Cambridge University Press and I’m pleased to say that she agreed to carve some time out of her busy schedule to discuss the play with us today. Having been immersed in the play for a long time there is no one better placed at the moment than Roberta to discuss the play so I was particularly pleased when she agreed to come back onto the podcast at this point.

Roberta Barker is a member of the Joint Faculty of King’s College, London, where she is Professor of Theatre teaching in the Foundation Year and Early Modern Studies programs, and Dalhousie University, Halifax Nova Scotia, where she teaches Theatre in the Fountain School of Performing Arts. Her research interests centre upon the relationship between performance and the social construction of identity and has explored such topics as the representation of gender and class in early modern tragedy, the early modern careers and modern afterlives of Shakespeare’s boy players, and the role played by the performance of illness on the nineteenth-century stage in the evolution of realist style. She is also a theatre and opera director.

Support the podcast at:
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Hello everyone

I’m interrupting your day for a small announcement about the podcast. If you have listened to any episodes recently you will have noticed that advertisements are now playing at the start, middle and end each episode. Placing advertisements in the podcast is a way of helping to recoup the costs of putting the podcast out for free, which is why I took the plunge and decided to go down this path. For those of you who support the podcast on Patreon on either of the paid levels of membership from next Monday’s episode I will be adding all new episodes without adverts to your Patreon feed, so that you can listen to them there. The episode that comes out on a Monday morning UK time will be released on Patreon on the Sunday before. For those of you on the top tier membership on Patreon these episodes will come on the same feed from which you currently get the extra episodes, so no need for you to make any changes.

If you are currently not a supporter on Patreon and you like the uninterrupted podcast experience, then now would be a great time to join us there and it will only cost you £1 a month. If you want to investigate that, or joining at the higher membership level and receiving two additional theatre related audio podcasts a month for an even deeper dive into theatre history then follow the link in the show notes or just go to patreon.com and search for ‘the history of European theatre’.

A bit thank-you to everyone who already supports the podcast on Patreon and also thanks to all of you who listen every week as we make our way through the long history of theatre.

As ever if you want to contact me about this change, or anything to do with the podcast you can reach me by email at [email protected], or through the website where you can leave me a voice message by clicking on the microphone icon or you can write to me on the contact page. That’s all at www.thehistoryofeuropeantheatre.com

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