Something Shakespeare This Way Comes

Ep 41: Awarding Shakespearean Superlatives with Guest Ben Roman

Most likely to rope their brother into recording a ridiculous podcast episode about Shakespeare? That goes to me! I thought it would be fun to run through a list of the superlatives you find in a high school yearbook and award them to various characters in Shakespeare. You know, best couple, mostly likely to succeed, all that fun stuff. Also, apologies to anyone whose high schools were way too into this. As it turns out, superlatives are mostly really weird! In this episode, catch me trying to spread the awards around instead of going back to the same five characters, become flabbergasted by some of the choices presented me, and enjoy a lot of background noise from my dog, who decided he wanted to be included. If there are any superlatives we don't cover in the episode or you'd like to argue I picked the wrong character for one of these, please let me know! Especially would love to hear from the underrepresented plays. Credit where credit is due Podcast art by Halie Branson Music recording by josdvg

Ep 40: Is 2025 the Year of Hamlet Core?

Farewell to 2025 – may you meet your fitting end at midnight (drowning in a cask of wine, perhaps). The past couple years have seen an absolute boom in Hamlet adaptations and productions. Why is Hamlet so hot right now? In this episode, I tackle the sheer number of Hamlet productions on the scene and how those adaptations wrestle with Shakespeare’s original work and what that says about the times we live in and what we find relatable. Hopefully you didn’t have a Hamlet year, but if you did, then you’re in good company! Let’s hope next year is a little kinder to us all.   Adaptations discussed in this episode: Fat Ham [https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/james-ijames] – Winner of the Pulitzer Prize 2022 Grand Theft Hamlet [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28244549/] Hamlet Hail to the Thief [https://www.rsc.org.uk/hamlet-hail-to-the-thief/] – Stage play Riz Ahmed’s Hamlet [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7798632/] King Hamlet [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt38064109/] - Oscar Issac documentary Scarlet [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt35114460/]– Anime adaptation Hamnet [https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hamnet-maggie-ofarrell/1134256507] (book) and Hamnet [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14905854/] (movie)   Some additional background: Four Hamlets talk about what it’s like playing the role [https://www.goldderby.com/film/2025/hamlet-hamnet-king-hamlet-oscar-isaac-riz-ahmed-ethan-hawke/] Riz Ahmed talk to Vanity Fair about his film [https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/story/riz-ahmed-hamlet-interview-little-gold-men] A conversation with the creators of Grand Theft Hamlet [https://www.indiewire.com/features/interviews/grand-theft-hamlet-filmmakers-interview-sxsw-1234964017/] Credit where credit is due: Podcast art by ⁠Halie Branson⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/hbranana/] Music recording by ⁠josdvg⁠

Ep 39: Shakespeare, Queer Theory, and Queer Culture in Early Modern England

Are we so back??? I hope so! Thank you to everyone who has patiently waited while I've been working through personal stuff. And congrats to everyone who caught up on the podcast during the break. I am back with an episode near and dear to my heart about whether Shakespeare was, in fact, a bisexual icon. Okay, not entirely. In this episode I talk about the long history of questions surrounding Shakespeare's sexuality, whether queer interpretations of his plays are reading "too much" into them, and talk about a wonderful book I read recently, Straight Acting: The Hidden Queer Lives of William Shakespeare by Will Tosh. Straight Acting looks at the different facets of Shakespeare's life growing up, going to school, and the theater scene in London and aspects of queerness in the culture at the time that he would have been introduced to and some ways we can see him engaging with it. In particular, I talk about some other writers at the time who were also having fun with gender and sexuality in their works. As always, I love building out that sweet, sweet context. Further Reading: Straight Acting: The Hidden Queer Lives of William Shakespeare [https://bookshop.org/p/books/straight-acting-the-hidden-queer-lives-of-william-shakespeare-will-tosh/bbe26c092ea3d153]by Will Tosh Homosexuality in Renaissance England [https://bookshop.org/p/books/homosexuality-in-renaissance-england-professor-alan-bray/e9d8e313225a3863] by Alan Bray The Renaissance of Lesbianism in Early Modern England [https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-renaissance-of-lesbianism-in-early-modern-england-frederick-g-l-huetwell-professor-of-english-and-women-s-studies-valerie-traub/17333fcc18b2d0ca] by Valerie Traub Further Listening: Episode 15: Introduction to Shakespeare's Sonnets [https://somethingshakespeare.com/2024/04/04/episode-15-introduction-to-shakespeares-sonnets/] Episode 10: Twelfth Night and Gender Exploration [https://somethingshakespeare.com/2024/01/25/episode-10-twelfth-night-and-gender-exploration/]

Ep 38: Taming of the Shrew in Perspective Over Time

Has the shrew been tamed or was the taming just the friendswe made along the way? I am back with the third and final episode looking at TheTaming of the Shrew! And, phew, it’s been quite a ride. In this episode, I’ll be discussing contemporary reactionsto The Taming of the Shrew, performances of the play across time, and my final take on the play now that I’ve finished reading way too much about it. When we build out the context surrounding a work of art,that allows us to think about it more deeply and consider the merits or problems with the text we didn’t consider the first time around. It’s a worthwhile exercise, even if you end up still disliking something after doing additional reading. At least that’s what I’m telling myself. Enjoy me taking every last opportunity to diss Petruchio!Next time I’ll talk about something else. Promise. Further Reading and Watching ⁠⁠The Taming of the Shrew⁠⁠ [https://shop.shakespearesglobe.com/products/arden-shakespeare-taming-shrew] by William Shakespeare, specially the Arden Shakespeare The Woman’s Prize, or, The Tamer Tamed [https://emed.folger.edu/sites/default/files/folger_encodings/pdf/EMED-Prize-orig-3.pdf] by John Fletcher ⁠Shakespeare and feminist performance: ideology on stage⁠ [https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/shakespeare-and-feminist-performance-ideology-on-stage-accents-on-shakespeare_sarah-werner/18303938/?resultid=722d1d04-b6b8-4767-992a-7a9108fdbadb#edition=71831170&idiq=71965077] by Sarah Werner "I Will Be Master of What Is Mine Own": Fortune Hunters and Shrews in Early Modern London [https://www.jstor.org/stable/43921244] by Eleanor Hubbard The Tamer as Shrewd in John Fletcher's "The Woman's Prize: Or, The Tamer Tam'd" [https://www.jstor.org/stable/23028082]by Holly A. Crocker "The Taming of the Shrew" with Morgan Freeman⁠ [https://www.pbs.org/wnet/shakespeare-uncovered/uncategorized/taming-shrew-morgan-freeman-preview/], episode of Shakespeare Uncovered from PBS   Credit where credit is due Podcast art by ⁠⁠Halie Branson⁠⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/hbranana/] Music recording by ⁠⁠josdvg [https://www.fiverr.com/josvdg/record-your-medieval-renaissance-and-baroque-soundtracks]

Ep 37: 10 Things I Hate About You (1998) with Guest Ben Roman

Hello boys, I’m back! The long-awaited 10 Things I Hate About You episode is here. Please enjoy listening to me and my brother probably defend this movie too hard. Honestly, for being a late ‘90s romcom, it’s doing a pretty good job of being a Shakespeare adaptation. And has the added advantage of being put against a Shakespeare play that is…more problematic than many of his other comedies. While we are open to other people’s interpretations of thisfilm, we here at Something Shakespeare This Way Comes will not be allowing any Kat slander at this time. Thank you. Warning: This episode has a higher swearing content than most episodes of this podcast (I was too tired to censor them). So please be aware that there will be some four-letter words flung about! Credit where credit is due Podcast art by ⁠Halie Branson⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/hbranana/] Music recording by ⁠josdvg⁠ [https://www.fiverr.com/josvdg/record-your-medieval-renaissance-and-baroque-soundtracks]