Shakespeare's Shadows Emily Rome

In "The Merchant of Venice," Portia is remarkable for her cleverness and the power she holds, and she’s ostensibly a hero of this story. But her journey is entwined with that of Shylock, the Jewish moneylender whose mistreatment makes "Merchant of Venice" a deeply troubling play. In this episode, we discuss just how extremely wealthy Portia is, whether or not Portia is likable (and how her likability is often approached differently in scholarship versus in performance), and how an actress may grapple with Portia’s role in Shylock’s ultimate fate.
Guests on this episode are:
Lynn Collins, who played Portia in the 2004 Merchant of Venice film directed by Michael Radford, starring alongside Joseph Fiennes, Jeremy Irons, and Al Pacino
Dr. Peter Holland, a professor of Shakespeare Studies at the University of Notre Dame teaching in both the English department and the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre
This episode contains explicit language and discussion of racism and religious intolerance.

Roberto Williams is one of five actors together playing the title character in Long Beach Playhouse’s current production of "Hamlet". One actor plays what’s called the core Hamlet, and the others play four parts of Hamlet’s psyche: wisdom, innocence, justice, and vengeance — Roberto plays the latter.

In this bonus episode, Roberto discusses this unique staging of what’s often referred to as Shakespeare’s best play. He also shares some details about another adaptation of "Hamlet" inspired by Deaf culture that he’s developing, and he chats about his popular Instagram and TikTok reels that connect Shakespeare’s characters to modern pop culture.

"Sleep No More," the immersive, one-of-a-kind adaptation of "Macbeth," is in the spotlight in the first-ever bonus episode of Shakespeare’s Shadows. Co-produced by Punchdrunk and Emursive Productions, "Sleep No More" is a promenade-style performance that invites the audience members to freely explore the eerie spaces of its 5-story set. Its iconic run in New York is currently set to close in mid-June.

Though this episode doesn’t delve into a single Shakespeare character like a regular-format episode of Shakespeare’s Shadows does, you’ll still find the captivating character-focused discussion that you get in any episode of the podcast.

Emursive Chief Storyteller Ilana Gilovich chats with podcast host Emily Rome about the impact and legacy of "Sleep No More," including how it weaves in elements of Alfred Hitchcock’s films, what the production’s props and imagery reveal about the characters, and her advice on how to get the most out of the show as an audience member.

In “Henry V,” King Henry gets a new foil: the French Dauphin, the heir apparent in France, England’s rival. In the conflict that culminates in the Battle of Agincourt, Shakespeare depicts the English with layers and complexity and ultimately with a great deal of nobility. Meanwhile, the French (in the text and sometimes even more so in performance) come off as arrogant, foppish, and often quite silly. This episode delves into discussion of the Dauphin’s relationship with his father the king, where Shakespeare diverges from real history, and how — even in a history play set at wartime — this character can be mined for a lot of comedy.
Guests on this episode are Stephen Michael Spencer, who played the Dauphin at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival in 2023, and Dr. Elizabeth Pentland, a professor at York University in Toronto who specializes in Renaissance literature, including research on literary exchanges between England and France during the period of the French civil wars.

featuring interviews with actor Michael Blake, Pilobolus choreographers Matt Kent and Renée Jaworski, and SUNY New Paltz professor Matthieu Chapman
A Shakespeare play that can be at turns heartwarming and troubling, “The Tempest” features two major characters who don’t look like the humans around them: Caliban and Ariel. Caliban, repeatedly described as “monstrous” by other characters, is enslaved by Prospero, the play’s protagonist. This episode delves into discussion about post-colonial interpretations of this play written in the early 17th century, about the significance of Caliban’s mother being a witch from Algiers, and about varying approaches to “The Tempest” theme of choosing forgiveness over revenge and the question of whether Caliban’s ending is one with reconciliation.
Guests on this episode are:
• Matt Kent (he/him) and Renée Jaworski (she/her), artistic directors of the acclaimed modern dance company Pilobolus. They crafted the choreography for “The Tempest” directed by Aaron Posner and Teller (of Penn and Teller), a stage production that depicts Caliban as a two-headed creature played by two performers
• Michael Blake (he/him), who played Caliban for the Stratford Festival in 2018, among his nine seasons at the Stratford, Ontario festival. Michael is currently portraying the Player in “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” opposite Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan.
• Dr. Matthieu Chapman (he/him), a theatre studies professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz whose publications include the books “Anti-Black Racism in Early Modern English Drama” and “Shattered: Fragments of a Black Life.”
This episode contains discussion of slavery, racial violence, involuntary intoxication, and an accusation of rape.
To view photos and video footage of the performances crafted by Pilobolus and by Michael Blake, visit shakespearesshadows.com/caliban-video

featuring interviews with actor Bally Gill and University of the Pacific professor Courtney Lehmann

One half of Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers is in the spotlight in this episode, which explores how this character goes from bad poet to good poet, what it takes to deliver an authentic and naturalistic Romeo, and how the introduction of the rapier to England shortly before Shakespeare wrote "Romeo and Juliet" was a deadly game-changer in street brawls.

Guests on this episode are Dr. Courtney Lehmann, professor of English and Film Studies at the University of the Pacific and writer of the book "Screen Adaptations: Romeo and Juliet: A close study of the relationship between text and film," and Bally Gill, who played Romeo at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2018, winning the prestigious Ian Charleston Award for the role. He has just made his return to the RSC, currently playing Oberon and Theseus in their "Midsummer Night’s Dream."