A King and No King 101

CW: Today’s episode involves one of our classic tangents, this time into the topic of incest and incest porn.

That said, today’s episode is a 101 all about dynamic playwriting duo Beaumont and Fletcher’s “tragicomedy” A King and No King. We summarize this bonkers play for you - spoilers: it’s only a fake incest plot to lure you in - and ready a portion of act 3 for a Taste of Text. We talk a little about why incest tropes are so popular in modern media, particularly in pornography but also in early modern drama, we gossip a little about the still-unraveling Cleveland Playhouse debacle, and call it a day. Also, there’s a minor character in the play whose name sounds like BI-CURIOUS, so start the fan fictions engines NOW.

Here’s what we featured in our Happy Hour segment:

• Aubrey’s rec: Ancient History FanGirl podcast

• Jess’s rec: Louise Erdrich, The Future Home of the Living God  and Grace D. Li, Portrait of a Thief

Here’s what we talked about in our ShakesBubble Gossip segment:

• Cleveland Playhouse debacle

Sea Voyage 101

Favorite guest expert and fellow #LadyAcademic Molly Seremet returns to talk to us about why Fletcher and Massinger’s goofy pirate collabo, The Sea Voyage, should be on everyone’s “must” list. We introduce you to the elusive and mysterious (and neckless) Philip Massinger in our Meet the Contemporary segment; we read a smidge of Act 2, scene 1 for A Taste of Text; Molly tells us all about the staging challenges and delights when producing this play, and then she SLAYS a round of Line Roulette; and finally, we gossip about all our favorite things happening in the ShakesBubble right now. We hope you’re weathering the pandemic safely and with clean hands! #stayhome #washyourhands

Maid's Tragedy 101

This episode is all about the AMAZING Beau-Fletch collabo The Maid’s Tragedy! We love this play sooooo much, so we start by Meeting the Contemporaries and tell you all about Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher’s epic, early modern bro-mance; we give you a Taste of Text (and a great “your mom” joke); Aubrey plays a round of Line Roulette; and we have soooooo much to cover in our ShakesBubble Gossip that it needed its own list of links (see below). Enjoy the episode and all the kinky twists of The Maid’s Tragedy!

1. This week’s SHAKES-BUBBLE “GOSSIP”: 

   1. Cool post on Burbage

   2. Also some cool shit happening at OSF

   3. This nonsense from The Telegraph

   4. This adaptation of Macbeth down under

   5. Watch the speakers from the recent RaceB4Race Symposium