Welcome …
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.
Latest Episode
025 – Medea, by Euripides
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The dramatic tragedy of a wife who murders her own two sons in a desperate act of grief and revenge remains as disturbing and deeply moving as when it was written nearly 2,500 years ago. Medea by Euripides is timeless not only because of our fascination with Medea’s horrific crime, but for the poetry of its language, and its unflinching portrayal of a woman all but powerless in a patriarchal world. The play was recently revived at the National Theatre with a stunning performance by Helen McCrory in the title role, which is now available to view on the National Theatre at Home. I’m joined by renowned classical scholar Edith Hall to explore our enduring fascination with Medea.
Last Time
024 – Consent, by Nina Raine
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The main characters in Nina Raine’s play Consent are barristers contesting a brutal rape case. As the case unfolds the lawyers’ marriages come unravelled and they themselves cross the line of honour or even of the law. Consent explores some of the most charged issues of our time: the sources of sexual betrayal and violence, the ambiguities of consent, and the failings of the justice system to account proportionally or sensitively with cases of sexual abuse. I am delighted and honoured to be joined in this episode by the author of Consent, Nina Raine, and by actor Adam James, who appeared in the National Theatre production in the role of Jake.
Recent Episodes
023 – Footnotes Volume 2
This episode is a collection of Footnotes on the plays that we've talked about in the past ten episodes. During the course of my researches and conversations with my guests there is all sorts of material that fails to reach the final podcasts,...
022 – Shook, by Samuel Bailey
Josh Finan as Cain in Shook(Photo: The Other Richard/Southwark Playhouse) Samuel Bailey's play Shook is set in a young offenders' institution, where three young men have signed up for a vocational class. But they have not chosen the usual options of...
021 – The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams
Kate O'Flynn as Laura and Brian J Smith as Jim(Photo: Johan Persson) The narrator tells us up front: "The play is memory. Being a memory play, it is dimly lighted, it is sentimental, it is not realistic....I am the narrator of the play and also a...
020 – Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, by Edward Albee
It is 2:00 am, and George and Martha have invited a young couple back to their home on a New England university campus for after-party drinks. What follows is arguably the most extended and vitriolic marital argument ever staged. Over four hours of...
019 – The Welkin, by Lucy Kirkwood
The Welkin at the National Theatre 2020Photo: Brinkhoff-Moegenburg It is 1759 in East Anglia. A child has been murdered and a young woman has been convicted to hang for the crime. She 'pleads her belly' and a jury of matrons must determine if...
018 – Copenhagen, by Michael Frayn
It is September 1941. German physicist Werner Heisenberg is visiting his friend and former colleague Niels Bohr at his home in Copenhagen. But this is not an ordinary meeting. Denmark is occupied by the forces of the Third Reich, and...
017 – The Duchess of Malfi, by John Webster
Lydia Wilson as the Duchess at the Almeida TheatrePhotograph by Nadav Kander John Webster's 400-year old revenge tragedy, The Duchess of Malfi, has always had a reputation as a potboiler of a play. Although set in Italy, it depicts a world of courtly...
016 – Oleanna, by David Mamet
David Mamet's explosive play Oleanna which shows how a seemingly benign conversation between a university professor and his female student can go so badly wrong caused intense controversy and divided audiences when it was first produced in 1992. The heated...
015 – The Father, by Florian Zeller, translated by Christopher Hampton
Kenneth Cranham and Claire Skinnerin The Father at the Tricycle Theatre, Londonc Simon AnnandPublished 12th November 2020Florian Zeller's award-winning play The Father presents a piercing portrait of a family living with dementia. Anyone who has witnessed...
014 – Rockets and Blue Lights, by Winsome Pinnock
Photo: c Manchester Royal Exchange Playwright Winsome Pinnock cited JMW Turner's painting The Slave Ship as one of the inspirations for her powerful new play Rockets and Blue Lights. The painting depicts a ship foundering in a tumultuous sea - at first...
013 – Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller
Wendell Pierce as Willy Loman at the Young Vic Theatre, London, 2019 (c. Brinkoff Mogenburg)Arthur Miller's great American classic Death of a Salesman is surely one of the most famous plays in history, being a constant on stages around the world and an...
012 – Footnotes 1
This episode is a selection of the Footnotes that we've compiled during the research and conversations that we've had so far on the podcast. It is a recorded smorgasbord of fragments, with titbits of information in the best tradition of footnotes, as well...
011 – Beginning, by David Eldridge
Sam Troughton and Justine Mitchell in Beginning at the National Theatre - Photo Johan PerssonDanny is the last guest remaining at Laura's flat warming party. They have been eyeing each other up from afar all night, and now that they are left alone, Laura...
010 – Albion, by Mike Bartlett
Victoria Hamilton and Nicholas Rowe in Albion at the Almeida - Photo Marc BrennerA grieving mother sets out to restore a garden of national importance in a bid to find personal peace and to promote historic British values that she fears may be lost in an...
009 – Nigel Slater’s Toast, by Henry Filloux-Bennett
Nigel Slater's award-winning memoir Toast was adapted into an award-winning play in 2018 by Henry Filloux-Bennett. The book and the play tell the story of Nigel's childhood through his memories of the food that he grew up with and that inspired him to...
008 – The Deep Blue Sea, by Terence Rattigan
“When you’re between any kind of devil and the deep blue sea, the deep blue sea sometimes looks very inviting.” So Hester Collyer describes the despair that led her to attempt suicide at the opening of Terence Rattigan's masterpiece The Deep Blue Sea. When...
007 – Lungs, by Duncan Macmillan
Photograph: Helen MaybanksA young couple navigate the age-old debate of whether or when to embark on having a baby. They are naturally worried about their personal responsibilities, but most topically they are also concerned about the impact that their...
006 – Betrayal, by Harold Pinter
Pinter's modern classic dissects the dynamics of betrayal in marriage, friendship and work. The ambiguities of the adulterous affair that is the core of the play are made all the more unsettling by the innovative chronology of the narrative: the play...
005 – The Tempest, by William Shakespeare
Photo © Marc BrennerShow notesThe theatre is filled with crashing sounds and the flashing light of a tumultuous storm. Sailors can be heard shouting to each other to try to prevent their ship from splintering apart. We are aboard the King of Naple’s ship...
004 – The Revlon Girl, by Neil Anthony Docking
Show notesIt is June 1967 and a group of women are gathering in a function room of the hotel in a small Welsh mining village for a demonstration of beauty tips by a rep from the Revlon cosmetics company. The women are keeping the Revlon Girl’s visit a...
003 – Endgame, by Samuel Beckett
Photo © Manuel HarlanShow notesThe stage is empty but for a single armchair and two dustbins. A sheet is draped over what appears to be a figure sitting in the chair. This is the famous opening tableaux of Samuel Beckett’s play Endgame. Endgame...
002 – Uncle Vanya, by Anton Chekhov
Show notesTo coincide with Irish playwright Conor McPherson’s new adaptation of the Chekhov classic, and its West End run, we talk with his publisher Nick Hern. When in 1889 Chekhov presented the first version of the play that would eventually become Uncle...
001 – A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen
Photo © Marc BrennerShow notesHenrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House remains one the most popularly produced and adapted plays in theatrical history. What is it about a play that was written more than 140 years ago that continues to inspire and challenge...
Footnotes
Medea – Footnotes
The Footnotes to our episode on Medea include further observations on the danger a woman like Medea represented to the men of ancient Athens, and the emotional experience Greek tragedy exacts.
Consent – Footnotes
The Footnotes to our episode on Nina Raine’s play Consent include observations on the ritualised performance of barristers in the courtroom, the resonances of Greek tragedy in the characters’ modern-day dramas, and the epistemology of intent or how they don’t know why they do what they do.
Shook – Footnotes
My Footnotes to our episode on Shook include more observations on our prejudices against people from different classes or circumstances, parenting as empathy, and the heartbreak of long-distance childbirth.
The Glass Menagerie – Footnotes
Our Footnotes to The Glass Menagerie include Tennessee Williams’ innovative ideas about lighting as an element of what he called his “plastic drama”; the endearing ambiguity of the character of Jim, the gentleman caller; the infinite distance of memory; and the explosive times the play was written and set in.
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf – Footnotes
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf is such a rich play that we have a lots of Footnotes to supplement our episode on the play. These include more on the origins and meaning of the famous title; some play-by-play analysis of George and Martha’s battle; the symbolic contrast between history and biology which George and Nick represent; the absence of model parents, or children at all; the thrill of the play’s language; and the censors who took offense at this “filthy play”.
The Welkin – Footnotes
The Footnotes to our episode on The Welkin include more on symbols in the sky, the life of the wife of a poet, and the apt sound of the butter churn.
Recent Posts
The 2020 Theatre Diary – March
Before the theatres went dark this month I was lucky enough to see Caryl Churchill’s A Number at the Bridge, and spend more than seven hours in thrall to Robert Lepage’s Seven Streams of the River Ota at the National. Plus, some thoughts on what we miss when there is no theatre.
The 2020 Theatre Diary – February
Another great mix of shows this month, from Tom Stoppard’s new play, to Ibsen, Beckett and newer plays in smaller London venues.
The 2020 Theatre Diary – January
The January roundup included both classic plays, such as The Duchess of Malfi, Uncle Vanya and Three Sisters, as well as recent musicals Dear Evan Hansen and Girl from the North Country …
Your host …
I’m Douglas Schatz, founder and host of The Play Podcast.
I had the great privilege to work for a number of years as the Managing Director of Samuel French, the renowned play publishers and theatrical licensing agent. I was lucky enough to be able to read plays and go to the theatre, and call it work. One of the most rewarding parts of my job was the time spent talking in depth with writers, directors, agents, and colleagues about plays. We talked endlessly about plays.
The idea for The Play Podcast is to continue those conversations. To talk in depth about a play, more than you will find in the reviews of a single production. To look at the origins of the play, its plot, themes, characters, and structure. To consider it in the context of the playwright’s life and times, its place in the dramatic canon, and its current and enduring relevance.
Each episode focuses on a single play, or perhaps very occasionally two, to talk about for up to an hour with one or more of our expert guests. We will often choose a play that is live on stage somewhere in the UK, which gives us and listeners the added opportunity to see and review a current production. This is not a review show though, because we are interested in the play itself. We want you to enjoy listening whether or not you are able to see a particular production, and whenever you find us.
Please feel free to contact us at plays@theplaypodcast.com with your comments on our conversations, and with suggestions about plays that you recommend that we could explore on the podcast.
You can email us at plays@theplaypodcast.com
Suggest a play
We’re always open to suggestions about plays to talk about, so if you’d like us to discuss a favourite of yours, please email us at plays@theplaypodcast.com. Let us know why you think we should cover it, and if you know anyone who’d be excited and qualified to talk about it with us (even yourself if modesty permits!).