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

City Nightcap 101

This week we’re talking about The City Nightcap by Robert Davenport, a bewildering play by an even more bewildering (read: mysterious) author. We try to help you Meet the Contemporary, but Bobby Davs left us very little to go on; our Taste of Text is sure to amuse (and confuse) you; we talk a LOT about all the kicking happening in this play, as well as why it - among other things - is so problematic (read: sexist AF). If you have the chance to see this play, awesome, but if you don’t you’re not really missing much aside from a unique barnyard-themed masque and the most hilarious not-a-bed-trick bed trick of all time. Have a great holiday season and we’ll see you in January!

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

• Aubrey’s rec: get your stir crazy dog a Flirt Pole!

• Jess’s rec: Take yourself out for something nice - treat yo’self!

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

• “New” portrait of “Shakespeare”

• Dr. Patricia Akhimie named new executive director of the Folger Institute!

Troilus & Cressida 201

Well, we hope you like feminist rants, because that’s what most of this episode devolved into. In this 201 we go off on Troilus and the rest of the men of Troilus and Cressida to interrogate why the Greeks and Trojans hinged all of their masculinity and self worth on Helen and Cressida’s status as chaste virgins. We also take a brief birdwalk to examine the folio text of this play to check an odd prose-to-verse switch in act 3 scene 2. Finally, we dust the cobwebs off of a favorite game, Line Roulette, and find out why a line about Achilles’ Mermidons cries encapsulates this entire play full of whiny boys.

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

• Aubrey’s rec: A-A-R-F animal rescue organization

• Jess’s rec: Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

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

• Ummm…Jess got a Shakespeare tattoo?

Spanish Tragedy 201

Today we put on our teacher hats and model the kind of thinking we ask our students to do. After a four-year hiatus, we return to Thomas Kyd’s ur-revenge tragedy that started them all, The Spanish Tragedy, to discuss how the F*ck we’re supposed to unpack it for 21st century learners. Jess starts with examining the difference between revenge and justice which, though nebulous, proved an easier topic to broach with her students than the concept of dumb shows and masques. Um…they don’t talk? There are masks and sometimes dancing? (There’s more to it than that, but you’ll need to listen to catch it all!)

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

• Aubrey’s rec: WFA (Women’s Football Alliance- professional tackle football!) look up your nearest team! PLAY SOME FOOTBALL.

• Jess’s rec: Detransition Baby by Torrey Peters and the wholesome joy that is Ted Lasso

Here’s what we featured in our ShakesBubble Gossip segments:

• RSC’s first-ever disabled actor playing R3

• RSC’s 37 plays initiative 

• White People in Shakespeare book out this fall

• Fatal Throne novellas

• Theatre J’s Expanding the Canon project

• Also that nonsense in American Conservative, but we refuse to link to it.

Hamlet 202: Interred With Their Bones

In our second ever 202 episode (reserved for a Shakespeare adaptation or adjacent work), we take you through the suspenseful and sometimes bemusing and frustrating plot of Jennifer Lee Carrell’s mystery thriller Interred With Their Bones. We give you a plot and character synopsis as well as all the Shakespearean easter eggs you can handle, with just a sprinkle of “authorship question” (because the book forced us to) and some early modern true crime to boot. Looking for a fun read for your holiday break? Read this book (and listen to our episode before you do)!

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

• Olivia Dade’s Spoiler Alert and All The Feels

Here’s what we featured in our ShakesBubble Gossip segments:

• ACMRS first and second book fellowships

• ACMRS poetics symposium

• Guardian article about a forthcoming book by Molly Yarn from Cambridge Press about history of Shakespearean “lady editors” 

• Scholar Haley Bachrach making headlines!