Bard Flies

Several dozen plays later, Will and James host a wrap-up episode where they revisit, revise, and criticize one another’s rankings, recognize the greatest and most outlandish characters with awards, and reflect on the experience of reading Shakespeare cover to cover over the past several years as they finish Season One of Bard Flies.CreditsIntro Music: Jon Sayles, "The Witches' Dance" (composed by anonymous)Outro Music: Jon Sayles, “Saltarello” (composed by anonymous)Illustrative Excerpts: “Pomp and Circumstance” (Edward Elgar); “First Blood,” dir. Ted Kotcheff (1982); “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery,” dir. Jay Roach (1997); “Friends: The One Where Phoebe Runs,” dir. Gary Halvorson (1999); “Top Gun,” dir. Tony Scott (1986); “Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back,” dir. Irvin Kershner (1980); “Goodfellas,” dir. Martin Scorsese (1990); John Gielgud, “Ages of Man,” Caedmon Records (1959); “Robin Hood,” dir. Wolfgang Reitherman and David Hand (1973); “Henry IV, Part One,” dir. Clive Brill (1998)

In Shakespeare's final -- yes, final -- play, he returns to where he started with the plight of noblemen in love with the same woman. Working again with John Fletcher, Shakespeare borrows from Chaucer for a tale set in ancient Greece featuring duels, delusions, exposure therapy, and prayers to the gods that get answered like the wishes on a monkey's paw -- but all in the service of a story that ends happily. (Except for the guy who gets thrown from his horse and dies in his hour of triumph.)CreditsIntro Music: Jon Sayles, "The Witches' Dance" (composed by anonymous)Outro Music: Jon Sayles, “Saltarello” (composed by anonymous)Illustrative Excerpts: Arkangel / BBC, “The Two Noble Kinsmen” (2006)

In the final of the history plays, Shakespeare and his collaborator John Fletcher take on Henry VIII, the story of his first two wives, the birth of the future queen Elizabeth, and the establishment of the Church of England. In this episode, Will and James discuss why people have found the politics of Henry’s court so compelling across the ages from Showtime’s The Tudors to Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall to Broadway’s Six, unpack the downfall speeches of Cardinal Wolsey and Katherine of Aragon, and consider whether you could pull it off today.CreditsIntro Music: Jon Sayles, "The Witches' Dance" (composed by anonymous)Outro Music: Jon Sayles, “Saltarello” (composed by anonymous)Illustrative Excerpts: Herman’s Hermits, “Henry the Eighth, I Am,” The Ed Sullivan Show (1965); Arkangel / BBC, “History of Henry VIII” (1998); Bea Segura, “Henry VIII,” dir. Hannah Khalil, Shakespeare’s Globe (2022)

Magic, monsters, sprites, witches, shipwrecks, betrayal, love stories on an enchanted isle, and emotional catharsis driven by a puppet master pulling all the stings: no, dear listeners, it’s not a Dungeons & Dragons campaign but Shakespeare’s The Tempest! Will and James discuss the play know as Shakespeare’s affectionate late-career farewell to the theatre, portrayals of Caliban throughout the years, its possible setting in the New World, and whether a play with an almost all-powerful protagonist can be truly dramatic.CreditsIntro Music: Jon Sayles, "The Witches' Dance" (composed by anonymous)Outro Music: Jon Sayles, “Saltarello” (composed by anonymous)Illustrative Excerpts: “The Tempest,” dir. Julie Taymor (2010); John Gielgud, “Ages of Man,” Caedmon Records (1959)

In this week’s minisode, the pod features a conversation on Cymbeline with Dr. Dan Normandin, postdoctoral fellow in Early Modern English Literature at George Mason University and, even more importantly, a former classmate of James and Will. Dr. Normandin offers his insight on some of the topics James and Will debated about Cymbeline and shares war stories on his time teaching Shakespeare before a controversial lightning round.CreditsIntro Music: Jon Sayles, "The Witches' Dance" (composed by anonymous)Outro Music: Jon Sayles, “Saltarello” (composed by anonymous)

With plot twists that depend on poor facial recognition, one-sided bets over cuckoldry, one of the most idiotic kings in Shakespeare, and a truly villainous stepson whose beheading we are unfairly denied on stage, Shakespeare’s “Cymbeline” is an interesting and often forgotten play in the Shakespeare canon. Will and James discuss which of these twists is most incredible as well as the Bard’s portrait of Cloten, the aforementioned stepson whose incel tendencies lead to depravity, and what we should make of the play’s British patriotism and ambivalent relationship to the Roman Empire.CreditsIntro Music: Jon Sayles, "The Witches' Dance" (composed by anonymous)Outro Music: Jon Sayles, “Saltarello” (composed by anonymous)Illustrative Excerpts: “Cymbeline,” dir. Michael Almereyda (2014); “Cymbeline,” dir. Cylan Brown, Shakespeare by the Sea, (2016); “Cymbeline,” dir. Laura Gordon, Band of Brothers Shakespeare Company (2019)

In a land ruled by a paranoid and jealous king hell-bent on destroying his own family and buffeted by violent storms, miracles, and a very large and hungry bear, Shakespeare’s characters go from intense melodrama to comedy to redemption in the five wild acts of The Winter’s Tale. In this week’s episode, Will and James find themselves surprised by how much they liked this romance and debate what makes it so much more successful than some of the Bard’s later plays.CreditsIntro Music: Jon Sayles, "The Witches' Dance" (composed by anonymous)Outro Music: Jon Sayles, “Saltarello” (composed by anonymous)Illustrative Excerpts: “The Winter’s Tale,” dir. Gregory Doran, Heritage Theatre (1999); “The Winter’s Tale,” dir. Kenneth Branagh, Garrick Theatre (2015)

In this week’s minisode, Will interviews Dr. Eliot A. Cohen, former Counselor at the Department of State, professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and co-host of the podcast Shield of the Republic. Dr. Cohen talks about his latest book project on Shakespeare and politics, the best stage to see the Bard come to life, what we can learn about war and peace from Coriolanus, and why Henry V is both the best and worst person to have in your foxhole.CreditsIntro Music: Jon Sayles, "The Witches' Dance" (composed by anonymous)Outro Music: Jon Sayles, “Saltarello” (composed by anonymous)

What happens when a virtuous general gets drafted to run for office after defeating Rome’s enemies in battle? Nothing good! In this classic tale of martial virtue, popular politics, banishment, and treason, Shakespeare explores the divide between soldiers and the public, martial honor and private wounds, and some of the most epic “mommy issues” this side of Hamlet. Will and James discuss the protagonist Coriolanus’s “great resignation” in this potent but lesser known tragedy.CreditsIntro Music: Jon Sayles, "The Witches' Dance" (composed by anonymous)Outro Music: Jon Sayles, “Saltarello” (composed by anonymous)Illustrative Excerpts: “Coriolanus,” dir. Ralph Fiennes (2011); “Coriolanus,” dir. Allen Fletcher, Oregon Shakespeare Festival (1953); “Coriolanus,” dir. Howard Sackler, Shakespeare Recording Society (1962)

On a tour with the least linear ports of call since The Odyssey, Shakespeare’s Pericles tries to win the hand of a princess in an incestuous relationship with her father by solving a riddle, ends a famine, gets into a shipwreck, wins a different bride in a tournament, and loses his family to a storm and pirates involved prostitution, only to miraculously reunite with them in the end. Will and James discuss this strange epic, the possible identity of its co-author, and whether Marina’s destruction of prostitution in Mytilene is the best brothel scene in Shakespeare.CreditsIntro Music: Jon Sayles, "The Witches' Dance" (composed by anonymous)Outro Music: Jon Sayles, “Saltarello” (composed by anonymous)Illustrative Excerpts: “Pericles,” dir. Howard Sackler, Shakespeare Recording Society (1964)