Not Shakespeare: Elizabethan and Jacobean Popular Theatre

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This series of six lectures introduces six plays from the Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre. Once popular and now little-known, they can tell us a lot about what their first audiences enjoyed, aspired to and worried about - from immigrants in early modern London to the role of women in the household,…

Oxford University


    • Nov 16, 2015 LATEST EPISODE
    • infrequent NEW EPISODES
    • 47m AVG DURATION
    • 12 EPISODES


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    Latest episodes from Not Shakespeare: Elizabethan and Jacobean Popular Theatre

    The Tamer Tam'd: John Fletcher

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 16, 2015 52:52


    A riposte to Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew Fletcher’s play is a riposte to Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew: in this lecture I discuss their interconnectedness as a way to identify Fletcher’s particular dramaturgy.

    Tis Pity She's a Whore: John Ford

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 11, 2015 53:19


    Reboot of Romeo and Juliet and other Elizabethan plays This lecture discusses the play’s reboot of Romeo and Juliet and other Elizabethan plays, its sensationalism, and its connections to anatomy.

    The Witch Of Edmonton

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 3, 2015 45:59


    Witchcraft and bigamy. A collaborative play about witchcraft, bigamy - and a talking Dog - what more could you want?

    A Chaste Maid in Cheapside: Thomas Middleton

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 27, 2015 53:46


    This lecture discusses comedy, fertility, and all those illegitimate children in this play about sex, economics and meat.

    The Alchemist: Ben Jonson

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 27, 2015 48:37


    Written in the context of plague in London, The Alchemist’s plot and language are deeply concerned with speed and speculation.

    Dr Faustus: Christopher Marlowe

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 26, 2015 49:10


    My lecture on this infernal play discusses Elizabethan religion, the revisions to the play, and whether we should think about James Bond in its final minutes.

    The Duchess of Malfi: John Webster

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 24, 2009 37:41


    In dramatizing a woman's sexual choices in a notably sympathetic manner, this tragedy articulates perennial questions about female autonomy and class distinction.

    The Roaring Girl: Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 13, 2009 48:15


    Based on a contemporary scandal of a woman who dressed in male clothing, this play of topsy-turvy genders has fun with some very modern ideas about sexuality, identity and whether we are what we wear.

    The Revenger's Tragedy: Thomas Middleton

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 6, 2009 45:30


    A blackly camp tragedy - Hamlet without the narcissism - set in a court corrupted by lust and self-interest, this play is both fascinated and repelled by its own depravity.

    The Shoemaker's Holiday: Thomas Dekker

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 6, 2009 45:33


    Like a Busby Berkeley depression-era musical, Dekker's comedy is a feel-good antidote to a context of shortages, political malaise and general pessimism, but real life in the shape of war, class antagonism and civic tensions, always threatens to intrude.

    Arden of Faversham: Anon

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 5, 2009 41:38


    A true crime story of the murder of Thomas Arden by his wife and her lover, this play is concerned with the politics of the household, with gender roles within marriage, and presents a black comedy of botched murder attempts rather like The Ladykillers.

    The Spanish Tragedy: Thomas Kyd

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 5, 2009 49:05


    Popular tragedy in which Hieronimo pursues aristocratic murderers of his son Horatio and takes revenge. It speaks, like Hollywood Westerns, to questions about private revenge versus public justice, and to the vexed religious questions of its age.

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