The Play Podcast - 036 - Hamlet by William Shakespeare

10/28/21 • 71 min

Episode 036: Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Greg Hersov

The Play Podcast is a podcast dedicated to exploring the greatest new and classic plays. In each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We discuss the play’s origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing.

It is arguably the world’s most famous play. The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark contains all of the elements of great drama: a revenge thriller, a family ripped apart, a tragic love story, political ambition and intrigue, wondrous poetry and philosophical insight, but most of all a uniquely intelligent, vibrant and sympathetic character who we see in all his brilliance and frailty.

We always knew that at some point we would come to this Everest of all plays, and we do so now inspired by a new production at London’s Young Vic theatre, where Cush Jumbo is winning huge acclaim in the eponymous role. I am delighted to be joined by the director of this production, Greg Hersov, who with his immense experience helps guide us through the almost infinite enchantments and challenges of the play.

Episode 036: Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Greg Hersov

Previous Episode

The Play Podcast - 035 - Our Country's Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker

Episode 035: Our Country's Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker

Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Matt Beresford

It is 1789 and a group of convicts in the newly-founded colony of Botany Bay in Australia are assembled to put on a production of George Farquhar’s Restoration Comedy The Recruiting Officer. The true story of this unlikely theatrical enterprise is the subject of Timberlake Wertenbaker’s award-winning play, Our Country’s Good, which premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in 1988 almost exactly 200 years after the events it portrays. The play is a vivid portrait of the volatile new settlement in New South Wales, which raises timeless questions about what makes for a country’s good: the exercise of justice, the iniquities of class, the value of education and culture, and particularly of the redemptive power of theatre itself.

It made complete logical sense to follow our last episode on The Recruiting Officer with this wonderful play, and even more sense to invite Director Matt Beresford back to talk us through it.

Next Episode

The Play Podcast - 037 - Blue/Orange by Joe Penhall

Episode 037: Blue/Orange by Joe Penhall

Host: Douglas Schatz Guests: Joe Penhall and James Dacre

In Joe Penhall’s explosive and unsettling play Blue/Orange we are asked to observe and judge an extended debate between two psychiatrists who differ on their diagnosis and treatment of a young patient who is apparently experiencing delusions that may be symptomatic of paranoid schizophrenia. The doctors are divided by their ambitions, relative status and racial identity and assumptions, and their discussions escalate into an increasingly bitter and personal power struggle, in which their patient becomes an unfortunate pawn.

Blue/Orange premiered at the National Theatre in 2000, and is now revived in a new production by the Royal & Derngate Northampton, Theatre Royal Bath, and Oxford Playhouse, starring Giles Terera, Michael Balogun and Ralph Davis, and directed by James Dacre. Twenty years on the play is as powerful and topical as ever, addressing the uncertainties and dangers around the diagnosis of mental illness, the latent racial prejudices that can distort our judgements, and the pernicious inflections of hierarchical power in inter-personal relationships.

I’m delighted to be joined in this episode by the playwright Joe Penhall and the director James Dacre.