The Play Podcast

Episode 111: The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht
Host: Douglas Schatz
Guests: Stephen Sharkey and Tom Kuhn

Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing.
Bertolt Brecht's 'gangster spectacle', The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui is both an exuberant and funny piece of theatre, and a chillingly topical political satire. Set in the 1930s Chicago of Al Capone, Brecht presents a parody of the rise of Hitler through the character of the gangster Arturo Ui. The play is a universal cry for vigilance against the rise of unscrupulous, populist leaders who threaten democratic societies and global peace.
As we recorded this episode a new production of the play by the Royal Shakespeare Company was playing in Stratford-upon-Avon, starring Mark Gatiss as the title character.
I am delighted to be joined by both the show's translator, playwright Stephen Sharkey, and by Brecht scholar, Professor Tom Kuhn, to guide us through Brecht's political parody.

Episode 110: Our Town by Thornton Wilder
Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Howard Sherman

Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing.
Playwright Edward Albee described Thornton Wilder's Our Town as "the greatest American play ever written." In fact Wilder's quintessential portrait of rural America in a bygone time has somehow transcended its iconic American setting to become a universal meditation on mortality, community, and how we live our individual lives, wherever that may be.
The play premiered on Broadway in 1938, winning Wilder the Pulitzer Prize, and it has been a staple of school, amateur and stock performance ever since. In fact, according to critic John Lahr writing in the introduction to the text of the Penguin edition, "the play is performed somewhere in the world every day."
Howard Sherman, author of Another Day's Begun – Thornton Wilder's Our Town in the 21st Century, joins me to explore this American classic.

Episode 109: Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Dr Hester Lees-Jeffries

Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing.
William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is arguably the most famous love story of all time. The tragic tale of their ecstatic young love has become iconic, not only in the theatre, but in the countless forms it has been retold, in musicals, dance, opera and film. As we record this episode a daring new production is playing in London's West End, directed by Robery Icke, and starring Sadie Sink and Noah Jupe as the "star-crossed lovers".
I'm delighted to be joined to explore the play by Dr Hester Lees-Jeffries from Cambridge University, author of the introduction to the New Cambridge Shakespeare edition of the text.

Episode 108: The Lady from the Sea by Henrik Ibsen
Host: Douglas Schatz
Guests: Professor Kirsten Shepherd, Tzen Sam

Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing.
When Henrik Ibsen's lyrical play The Lady from the Sea premiered in 1889, the critics were bewildered. On the surface it is a conventional drama of marital strife and the constrained social position of women, but the play is enriched by its acute portrait of psychological trauma and mystical undercurrents. I was prompted to explore the play having seen Simon Stone's modern adaptation at the Bridge theatre in London in the Autumn of 2025, and I am delighted to welcome Ibsen expert, Professor Kirsten Shepherd, back to the podcast, to discuss this intense and mysterious work. Kirsten and I are also joined by Oxford PHD student, Tzen Sam.

Episode 107: Entertaining Mr Sloane by Joe Orton
Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Dr Emma Parker

Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing.
Joe Orton's black comedy Entertaining Mr Sloane offended many established critics when it premiered in 1964. Orton's first full-length play signalled the arrival of a unique new voice, defined by its anarchic farce, camp sexuality, and faux-refined language, like a ramped-up Oscar Wilde let loose in the emerging age of free love. The play's first production was promoted with ads warning that it was "not for the narrow minded".
I have long wanted to cover Orton on the podcast, and I was prompted to start with this play by the recent revival staged at the Young Vic theatre in London. I am delighted to welcome Orton enthusiast and expert, Dr Emma Parker, to help me explore Orton's provocative farce.