Why Shakespeare?

My guest today is the actor Michael Maloney, now Patron of Bard in the Bookshop. Michael has played some of the biggest parts in the Shakespeare canon for the Royal Shakespeare Company (Hal, Edgar, Romeo, Hamlet... twice) and worked alongside giants like Peter Hall, Trevor Nunn and John Barton. On screen, he's a longtime Kenneth Branagh collaborator, appearing in Henry V , Hamlet , In the Bleak Midwinter and Belfast . We recorded this in his dressing room in Cardiff, while we were touring together with Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express , in which Michael played the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot . This episode is a masterclass in speaking Shakespeare from someone who has done it all his life, and a short history of theatre besides.

My guest today is the theatre director Indiana Lown-Collins. Indiana is from Spain and moved to the UK later in life. She cut her teeth at the Guildford Shakespeare Company before becoming Resident Associate Director at Shakespeare's Globe. She is currently directing Love's Labour's Lost at the Globe, a production that fuses Shakespeare's language with flamenco, drawing on her own Spanish heritage. For once, thanks to my editor, this podcast is relevant to current affairs as LLL is still on! Run to see it if you haven’t yet. We recorded this in a cavernous room tucked away at the Globe, with Indiana's lovely dog Alma keeping us company throughout. We talk about how Shakespeare found her rather than the other way around, growing up in Spain, disability and access in the arts, the magic of that circular playhouse, and how Shakespeare is... a modern playwright. I hope you enjoy!

Victoria's guest today is movement director Ayse Tashkiran, an associate artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Her credits include the RSC's 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'Othello' at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, 'Shakespeare in Love', and the stage adaptation of 'Hamnet'. We recorded this conversation over dinner in her beautiful home, we hope it proves as much of a feast for you as it was for us. Ayse takes us through her process for approaching Shakespeare, from turning every verb into a score of movement, reading the text through Renaissance humoral theory and working outwards from anatomy to Elizabethan courtly dance. We also talk about negotiating two scores, hers and a director's, the very different physicality of Shakespeare versus Marlowe and Webster, and what it means to invoke all those 'imaginary forces' on stage today. We hope you enjoy listening!

My guest today is Dr. Anjna Chouhan: scholar, writer, broadcaster, educator, and, for a number of years, my boss at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon where she was an in-house scholar for a decade, and where she developed a very successful and fun approach to adapting Shakespeare for younger audiences. Amongst other projects, she has co-hosted the podcast Shakespeare Alive for the Birthplace – where she kindly interviewed me in 2021 – and produces and hosts her own podcast, the brilliant and surprising Shakespeare’s Pants . If you’re interested in any of the Tudor’s bodily functions and everyday life, it’s an absolute gem so please go check it out! In this episode, we talk about how a childhood copy of Twelfth Night sparked a lifelong fascination with Shakespeare to Victorian adaptations and to Anjna’s recent mammoth work: a children’s edition of Shakespeare's First Folio .

This is a special one. I was completely star struck when I first met Katy Stephens in a rehearsal room for Agatha Christie’s 'And Then There Were None,' the show which brought us to China, where we recorded this podcast. Katy has not only worked at the Royal Shakespeare Company for many years – including as a very memorable Rosalind – she has performed at the Globe, playing many parts amongst which are both Timora and Titus in Titus Andronicus, and in shows up and down the country. We talk about why she loves Shakespeare so viscerally, her approach to words, their muscularity… and their soul. I hope you enjoy!

My guest today is the legendary actor Terence Wilton. I will let you count all the incredible name drops he manages to do in this podcast by yourself, but suffice it to say… Terry was probably playing Shakespeare before you were born – certainly before I was born – and he is damn good at it. He has toured the world with the Bard, and gained infinite wisdom from it that he eloquently and passionately shares here. I interviewed him… like many of these first guests, in China, while we were touring together with Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None.

In this episode of Why Shakespeare? Victoria talks to Dr Will Tosh, the Head of Higher Education at Shakespeare's Globe, about his passion for Shakespeare and the history of playhouses but also about breeching, the sonnets, casting Shakespeare, Kings and their minions, which are some of the many topics in his book 'Straight Acting: The Many Queer Lives of William Shakespeare.' This episode was the first of the episodes we have recorded live in Waterstones Gower Street. Enjoy listening!

In this episode, Victoria talks to acclaimed director Lucy Bailey about approaching Shakespeare as a director, her first experience of Shakespeare, directing at the Globe and the RSC and her specialist subject - Shakespeare and violence. The informal interview is recorded in Lucy's kitchen, with her two fluffy cats prowling around! We hope you enjoy listening.

Welcome to episode 4 of ‘Why Shakespeare’, a podcast in which I ask people why they like Shakespeare, why they devote their lives to it, why they learn it by heart and write books about it and donate a million pounds to the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust to restore one of its houses… Well, you will have guessed it – my guest today is a big, big Shakespeare fan. I was lucky to be able to work with the American playwright Ken Ludwig on several shows, and he kindly took time out of his very busy schedule to talk to me about Shakespeare. This was recorded in September 2024 in a dressing room in the Lowry, in Salford, when we were opening his play ‘Murder on the Orient Express.’

My guest for this episode is the actor Lucy Tregear. Lucy is a seasoned actor, voiceover artist and teacher whose work has taken her all over the globe. Together we talk about Shakespeare's sonnets, female roles in the canon, and why Shakespeare should not be mandatory in schools. Happy listening!

My guest today is the actor and writer Michael Begley. He has been acting for decades and has countless credits on the West End and in theatres across the country. He has been on television Doctor Who, Holby City, Casualty, Call the Midwife and EastEnders, for which he has also written several episodes, as Michael is a talented play and screen writer. I interviewed him in his dressing room in Xi’an’s Grand Opera House in China when we were touring together for three months with Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None . In this episode, Michael compares Shakespeare to Elvis Presley, and we talk about sound, jokes, and why Shakespeare is something 'posh people do over there .' I hope you enjoy listening!

My first guest is the actor Bob Barrett. You might know him from Holby City, but Bob is also a seasoned Shakespearean actor, notably with the company Propeller. He also appears in the movie Shakespeare In Love as George Bryan. I interviewed him in Theatre Royal Plymouth as we were touring together on And Then There Were None. This episode contains: swearing.