Shakespeare Unlimited podcast
William Shakespeare and his works are woven throughout our global culture, from theater, music, and films to new scholarship, education, amazing discoveries, and more. In our Shakespeare Unlimited podcast, Shakespeare opens a window into topics ranging from the American West, to the real history of Elizabethan street fighting, to interviews with Shakespearean stars. As you’ll hear, he turns up in surprising places, too—including outer space. Join us for a “no limits” tour of the connections between Shakespeare, his works, and our world.
Derek Jacobi: Acting Shakespeare
Actor Derek Jacobi talks about his remarkable career, including the advice he received from Richard Burton, a disappointing rejection by the Royal Shakespeare Company, sharing the stage with Laurence Olivier, his collaborations with Kenneth Branagh, and a struggle with paralyzing stage fright.
Derek Jacobi: Playing Hamlet
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 91 Renowned actor Derek Jacobi talks about the Shakespearean role for which he is best known, Hamlet. Beginning at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1957, Jacobi has acted this role on stage nearly 400 times, and as you…
Bernard Cornwell: Fools and Mortals
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 90 Bernard Cornwell, a bestselling writer of historical fiction such as the Sharpe series, has turned to the world of the Elizabethan theater. His newest novel, Fools and Mortals, imagines the first production of A Midsummer Night’s…
Orson Welles and Shakespeare
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 89 There was a time when Orson Welles was one of America’s biggest celebrities. In 1938, he made national headlines when the radio show he produced did a version of The War of the Worlds that was…
Marketing Shakespeare
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 88 Getting theater audiences interested in Romeo and Juliet might be easy. But what about less familiar Shakespeare plays like Timon of Athens? This episode of the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast offers an insider’s take on the challenges…
Sights, Sounds, and Smells of Elizabethan Theater
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 87 In Shakespeare’s time, theater companies used a variety of staging effects in their productions to create a full-body experience for playgoers: fireworks, fake blood, fake body parts, paint, and more. Plays were smorgasbords for the senses—including,…
Tang Xianzu and Shakespeare in China
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 86 In 2015, on a state visit to Great Britain, Chinese Premier Xi Jinping called 17th century Chinese playwright Tang Xianzu the “Shakespeare of the East,” and ever since, the Ministry of Culture for the People’s Republic…
Shakespeare in Science Fiction
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 85 Shakespeare and his plays crop up in science fiction in a number of surprising places, from classic stories like Isaac Asimov’s “The Immortal Bard” to TV shows like Star Trek and Doctor Who. And it’s not…
Edward St. Aubyn: Dunbar
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 84 The title character of King Lear becomes a media mogul in Edward St. Aubyn’s new novel, Dunbar, which retells the story of one of Shakespeare’s most dysfunctional families for the Hogarth Shakespeare series. Edward St. Aubyn…
Shakespeare in Swahililand
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 83 Two literary scholars discuss Shakespeare’s influence on the politics, history, and literary culture of East Africa. Edward Wilson-Lee, the son of white wildlife conservationists, spent his childhood in Kenya and now teaches Shakespeare at the University…
Thinking Shakespeare with Barry Edelstein
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 82 How do actors breathe life into Shakespeare’s texts? How do they take language that’s centuries old and make it sound so real and immediate? Barry Edelstein, the Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director at The Old Globe…
Shakespeare and War: Stephan Wolfert
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 81 In his one-man show Cry Havoc! actor Stephan Wolfert, a US Army veteran, draws together lines in Shakespeare’s plays spoken by soldiers and former soldiers—including Macbeth, Othello, and Richard III. He puts those words to the…