Whereof what's past is prologue; what to come, In yours and my discharge. So we’re a quarter of the way through the complete works of Shakespeare. We’re over 210 thousand words in, thirty two hours having elapsed of runtime, and 513 minutes of delicious, minty fresh podcast for you and yours. It was our intention to go straight through, fortnight after fortnight. We were not seasoned podcasters starting this process, and we’ve learned on the fly; and one of the things that we’ve learned is that ...
Oct 27, 2020•2 min•Season 1Ep. 13
This week on Heavenly Shows and Unnecessary Letters: Richard II, directed by Gregory Doran for the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2013, filmed live at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, and written in 1595 by William Shakespeare. What is a king? A miserable little pile of secrets. The tale of Richard the Second is that rarest of beasts; a piece of theatre in a very monarchist era that contains, and even to some extent glorifies, a coup dethroning the king. This is a play with tw...
Oct 13, 2020•52 min•Season 1Ep. 12
This week on Heavenly Shows and Unnecessary Letters: Measure for Measure, directed by Dominic Dromgoole for the Globe Theatre in 2015, and written in 1604 by William Shakespeare. EPISODE NOTES: There’s a lot of discussion in the world about Shakespeare’s place in the English canon and education system, a lot of people saying that we’d have a better time of it if we used work that was more relevant to students and to modern life. We here at Heavenly Shows actually sort of agree with that--Shakesp...
Sep 29, 2020•50 min•Season 1Ep. 11
This week on Heavenly Shows and Unnecessary Letters: Kiss Me Kate, directed by George Sidney in 1953 with screenplay written by Dorothy Kingsley adapted from the stage musical by Cole Porter, and Ten Things I Hate About You, directed by Gil Junger in 1999 and written by Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith, both based on Taming of the Shrew, written by William Shakespeare in 1603. EPISODE NOTES: It is well said that Shakespeare’s stories are timeless in their core themes and so it comes as no surpri...
Sep 15, 2020•37 min•Season 1Ep. 10
This week on Heavenly Shows and Unnecessary Letters: Taming of the Shrew, directed by Toby Frow for the Globe Theatre in 2012, and written in 1603 by William Shakespeare. Content Warning: In this episode we discuss depicted episodes of domestic violence. If you need assistance, links to some Australian support providers will be included at the end of these show notes. Some Shakespeare plays are timeless, and others are a product of their time. When staging plays, what you put on stage is always ...
Sep 01, 2020•40 min•Season 1Ep. 9
This week on Heavenly Shows and Unnecessary Letters: Othello, directed by Oliver Parker in 1995, and written in 1603 by William Shakespeare. EPISODE NOTES: We specifically worked, when developing the schedule for watching these shows, to make sure it was the kind of schedule we could adhere to and that wouldn’t make us want to quit half-way through. We put the histories in chronological order, we made sure we weren’t watching too many tragedies or comedies in a row; and then, when we were done w...
Aug 18, 2020•42 min
This week on Heavenly Shows and Unnecessary Letters: Pericles, Prince of Tyre, directed by David Hugh Jones for the BBC in 1984, and written circa 1608 by William Shakespeare. EPISODE NOTES: This week’s show is another semi-shakespearean work - promoted in it’s day as a work by Shakespeare, but with the first two acts written by another man. This week’s show was also regarded as having the most mass popularity of any Shakespearean play in the time it was written, to the point where critics of th...
Aug 04, 2020•49 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Tammy and Luke explore and review the 2009 St Louis Shakespeare production of Shakespeare's Edward III. EPISODE NOTES: Among others. Some people don’t think Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare, and as a podcast, our official position on that is *blows a raspberry*. It’s without question, however, that some Shakespeare plays weren’t written by him alone, and that throughout history some plays that weren’t considered to be written by him, were. The latest addition to the canon is Edward the Third, a wor...
Jul 21, 2020•38 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Tammy and Luke explore and review the 2010 Globe Theatre production of Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor. EPISODE NOTES: No-one can be great all the time. Spielberg made the movie of the Twilight Zone. Sondheim wrote the Frogs, and Shakespeare wrote The Merry Wives of Windsor. The following are a few things written about this play; that it is “one of Shakespeare's weakest plays” and that it “bears the earmarks of hasty writing”. All that being said, something we’ve often said in our acting ca...
Jul 07, 2020•46 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Tammy and Luke explore and review the 2010 film adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest. EPISODE NOTES: As performers, we believe that Shakespeare is at its best performed, not read. As much as we love theatre, and the stage, and as much as we have enjoyed watching filmed stage productions, we were always going to get to watching a traditional cinema film adaptation of Shakespeare, and that’s where we are today. The Tempest is a divisive play at the best of times, and film adaptations of Shakesp...
Jun 23, 2020•35 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Tammy and Luke explore and review the 2015 Stratford Festival production of Shakespeare's King John. EPISODE NOTES: This is the first show we’re recording after our first episode released, and we’re absolutely flabbergasted by how many people have listened to our show; we came into this with no expectations, and they have been blown away, honestly. Coming into something with no expectations and being blown away is kind of a theme this week, because King John is not exactly the most popular and f...
Jun 09, 2020•39 min•Season 1Ep. 3
We decided at the last second to watch the 1978 BBC Television version of As You Like It, because it has a 27 year old Helen Mirren at full power, and we're horrendously indecisive. Nice Hat 1: https://meeper.org/hsaul/ep1/nicehat1.png Nice Hat 2: https://meeper.org/hsaul/ep1/nicehat2.png The Flying Nun: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flying_Nun IMDB Link for adaptation: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077180/ DVD of adaptation: https://www.amazon.com.au/BBC-SHAKESPEARE-COLLECTION-Various-Other...
May 12, 2020•42 min•Season 1Ep. 1
There are 835,997 words in the plays of Shakespeare. Heavenly Shows and Unnecessary Letters is a podcast where two theatre nerds watch productions of all 39 Shakespeare plays, and have a chat about the challenges and successes in adapting the work for modern stage and screen. If you’re a fan of Shakespeare, or theatre, or just like to listen to people challenge their stamina for consuming iambic pentameter, this podcast is for you. Email Address: hsaulpodcast@gmail.com Facebook: https://www.face...
May 09, 2020•4 min
