Spanish Golden Age — Podcast Episodes — The Hurly Burly Shakespeare Show!

Podcast Episodes

What happens when two bawdy, Early Modern word-nerds sit down to talk about all things Shakespeare? You get "The Hurly Burly Shakespeare Show!": an irreverent mix of entertainment and scholarly content suitable for novices and hard-core “Bardolaters” alike. Jess (The Scholar) and Aubrey (The Practitioner) discuss the plays of William Shakespeare and his contemporaries, as well as other fascinating aspects of the Early Modern period’s lively theatre and print culture. “The Hurly Burly Shakespeare Show!” features the latest “Shakes-bubble” gossip, Burbage Breaks, nerdy games, hot takes and absolute havoc as Jess and Aubrey attempt to summarize each play in five minutes or less. Or not. We do what we want! Come for the Hurly, stay for the Burly: we guarantee you’ll learn something new with every episode.

For our final 101 episode, we take you back to the Spanish Golden Age with House of Desires and its proto-Mexican, female playwright Sor Juana (a nun!). We tell you a little about this Metal AF nun in Meet the Contemporary, and we summarize the play and read a very silly cross-dressing scene from the second act for A Taste of Text. We compare translations of the scene a little bit, and then gossip a lot about yet another Oxfraudian, anti-Stratfordian overture made by the Shakespeare Authorship Coalition (aka SAC - which, like, LOL at your dumb acronym, bros). Listener beware: if the authorship “debate” fills you with white-hot rage, you may just want to skip the last 15 minutes of the episode. That aside, someone please produce House of Desires so we can go see it. We think it’s a delight and we hope you agree.

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

Aubrey’s rec: Himalayan yak cheese dog chews for the adorable extreme chewers in your life
Jess’s rec: this is so dumb, but changing your highlight color on your computer/phone :)

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

That dumb survey Jess and a bunch of other Shakespeare scholars got from the anti-Strats of SAC. (We’re not going to dignify their nonsense with a link to their site. You’re smart. You can find it if you want to.)

It’s our first ever 101 for a Spanish Golden Age play! Today we’re talking about Lope de Vega’s Fuenteovejuna and all the wild, wonderful customs and traditions of the early modern Spanish theatre. Our Meet the Playwright segment takes you through de Vega’s impressive (and horny) biography; Jess delights with her multitude of voices in A Taste of Text; we take you through the real event that this play is based on - true crime, again, huzzah! - and Aubrey compares the structure and culture of Spanish playhouses to the English ones we usually talk about, plus the added layer of textual instability that comes with second-language translation. The differences may surprise you! Not only that, but this play gives you the perfect excuse for your mistakes and/or crimes: just say “Fuenteovejuna did it!”

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

Aubrey’s rec: follow the @teachingwithcorazon instagram account!
Jess’s rec: Patronize your local massage school for some self-care on a budget!

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

This story about OSF’s Artistic Director
Ian Smith’s new book!
Hedgepig Ensemble Theatre’s 2022 Expand the Canon titles

House of Desires 101

Fuenteovejuna 101