Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited
Books & Literature
About
Home to the world's largest collection of Shakespeare materials. Advancing knowledge and the arts. Discover it all at www.folger.edu. Shakespeare turns up in the most interesting places—not just literature and the stage, but science and social history as well. Our "Shakespeare Unlimited" podcast explores the fascinating and varied connections between Shakespeare, his works, and the world around us.
Episodes
- The Shakespeare Ladies Club
A century after Shakespeare’s death, his words were in danger of being forgotten. While plays like King Lear and Othello still played to packed houses across England, audiences saw only the bowdlerized versions—censored, rewritten, and str…
- The Translator's Art and Shakespeare, with Daniel Hahn
Is Shakespeare still Shakespeare even if every word is changed? While Shakespeare’s work is often hailed for its universality, its meter, metaphor, and wordplay pose special challenges for translators. How do you convey the rhythm and spir…
- The Improvised Shakespeare Company
What is it like to create a Shakespeare play that’s never been written—and will never be performed again? The Improvised Shakespeare Company is a long-running ensemble that performs entirely unscripted plays in the style of Shakespeare. Fo…
- Adjoa Andoh on Shakespeare
Known to many as Lady Danbury in Netflix’s Bridgerton, Adjoa Andoh, MBE, is also a celebrated Shakespearean actor and director. Across her career, Andoh has returned to Shakespeare not as a fixed canon, but as a space for reimagining power…
- Thinking Through Shakespeare, with David Womersley
Many readers turn to Shakespeare for the beauty of his language or the power of his stories. But in Thinking Through Shakespeare, Oxford scholar David Womersley suggests that the plays offer something else as well: a way of exploring some…
- The Boydell Shakespeare Gallery
When you visit a new city, one of your first stops might be a museum. It turns out that public art galleries are largely an 18th-century invention. In London in 1789, publisher John Boydell helped shape that new cultural experience with an…
- Whitney White and Shakespeare
Whitney White is a theatrical powerhouse. A director, writer, actor, and musician, White’s work has been seen on Broadway, Off Broadway, and at major institutions including The Public Theater, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and, most recen…
- Shakespeare and Mathematics
Many Shakespeare fans don’t think of themselves as “math people.” They’re theater kids, poetry lovers, bookworms, right? But in Shakespeare’s world, math and literature were deeply intertwined. In Much Ado About Numbers: Shakespeare’s Math…
- Spain's Golden Age of Theater
While Shakespeare was reshaping English drama, a parallel theatrical revolution was unfolding in Spain. During the Spanish Golden Age, playwright Lope de Vega pioneered the comedia nueva, a bold new dramatic form that broke classical rules…
- The Strange History of Samuel Pepys's Diary
Why does Samuel Pepys’s diary still matter 200 years after it was first published? In her new book, The Strange History of Samuel Pepys’s Diary, historian Kate Loveman examines how Pepys’s extraordinary consistency as a diarist has made hi…
- Celebrating Elizabethan Cooking, with Sam Bilton
What did people really eat in Shakespeare’s England? In her new book, Much Ado About Cooking, food historian Sam Bilton uncovers the vibrant and surprising world of early modern cuisine—where sugar was locked away like treasure, fresh sala…
- Hamnet, with Chloe Zhao and Maggie O'Farrell
Hamnet, the acclaimed novel by Maggie O’Farrell, is now a major film. The story imagines the life and death of Shakespeare’s son, Hamnet, whose loss would later echo through one of his most famous tragedies, Hamlet. O’Farrell joins directo…
- London's First Playhouse and Shakespeare
Before Shakespeare became a literary icon, he was a working writer trying to earn a living in an emerging and often precarious new industry. In The Dream Factory: London’s First Playhouse and the Making of William Shakespeare, Daniel Swift…
- Mary, Queen of Scots, with Jade Scott
Imprisoned for nearly 20 years by her cousin Queen Elizabeth I, Mary, Queen of Scots, fought her battles through words, sending and receiving coded letters hidden in books, garments, and even beer barrels. Historian Jade Scott, of the Univ…
- Richard Burbage and the Shakespearean Stage
Long before Shakespeare became a household name, there was Richard Burbage. As the first actor to play Hamlet, Macbeth, Richard III, and King Lear, Burbage helped define what it meant to be a Shakespearean actor. A commanding performer, he…
- Harriet Walter: New Words for Shakespeare's Women
Shakespeare’s plays are filled with unforgettable women—but too often, their voices are cut short. Ophelia never gets to defend herself. Gertrude never explains her choices. Lady Anne surrenders to Richard III in silence. In her new book,…
- Stephen Greenblatt on Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare were both born in 1564, rising from working-class origins finding success in the new world of the theater. But before Shakespeare transformed English drama, Marlowe had already done so—with Tambu…
- Al Letson on his play Julius X
You may know Al Letson as a journalist—he’s the host of the popular investigative podcast Reveal. Before that, he created and hosted the public radio show State of the Re:Union. But Letson is also an actor, writer, playwright, and poet. Hi…
- Director Rosa Joshi on Julius Caesar Today
Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar feels urgently contemporary in Rosa Joshi’s new production at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival—one of America’s largest and longest-running theater festivals, now in its 90th season. Staged in partnership with Se…
- Reading Jane Austen in the 21st Century with Patricia A. Matthew
250 years after her birth, Jane Austen is more popular than ever, with the publication of new editions of her novels and numerous new film adaptations in production. But what does it mean to read and edit Jane Austen today through the lens…
- Inside Hamlet’s Head with Jeremy McCarter
What if, instead of just watching Hamlet, you could step inside the prince’s mind? A revelatory new audio production reimagines Shakespeare’s iconic tragedy as a first-person experience told through Hamlet’s POV. We only hear the scenes in…
- Shakespeare, Money, and Meaning-Making
Can reading King Lear help us rethink economic policy? Can Measure for Measure shape how we talk about justice, or Hamlet help us face grief? That’s the idea behind an ambitious project at Montreal’s McGill University called Reimagining Sh…
- Staging Hamlet in Grand Theft Auto
When live performance shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, actors Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen weren’t sure when—or if—they’d ever be onstage again. So, they turned to an unexpected venue: Grand Theft Auto Online, a sprawling, open-wor…
- Simon Russell Beale on Shakespeare, from Hamlet to Titus
Called “the finest actor of his generation,” Sir Simon Russell Beale has played just about everyone in Shakespeare’s canon—Hamlet, Lear, Macbeth, Falstaff, Malvolio, Iago—and most recently, Titus Andronicus, for the Royal Shakespeare Compa…
- Shakespeare’s Boy Player Alexander Cooke
In Shakespeare’s time, the actresses were boys—and for the most celebrated of them, fame came early but could end abruptly with a voice change. In this episode, author Nicole Galland joins us to talk about the world of boy players, young a…
- King Lear and Mao’s China, with Nan Z. Da
Nan Z. Da, in her book The Chinese Tragedy of King Lear, finds unsettling parallels between Shakespeare’s play and 20th-century China under Mao Zedong. Da, a literature professor at Johns Hopkins University, weaves together personal histor…
- Top Pop Songs of the 1600s
What were the top musical hits of Shakespeare’s England? What lyrics were stuck in people’s heads? What stories did they sing on repeat? The 100 Ballads project is a deep dive into the hits of early modern England—a kind of 17th-century Bi…
- The Yorkist Pretender, with Jo Harkin
Who was Lambert Simnel—the boy who nearly claimed the Tudor throne? In late 15th-century England, identity wasn’t just a matter of birth—it could be a political weapon, a tool for rebellion, and sometimes, an outright performance. The stor…
- Surekha Davies on the Making of Monsters
Historian Surekha Davies joins us to explore how ideas of wonder, race, and the monstrous shaped European thought in the age of empire. These weren’t just abstract concepts—they were embedded in scientific discourse, travel writing, and th…
- Reimagining Judith Shakespeare with Grace Tiffany
Judith Shakespeare’s life is a mystery. While history records her as the younger daughter of William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway, much of her story remains untold. In her new novel, The Owl Was a Baker’s Daughter, author and Shakespeare…
- Julia Armfield Reimagines King Lear in a Drowning World
How does Shakespeare’s King Lear resonate in a world facing climate catastrophe? Novelist Julia Armfield explores this question in Private Rites, a novel set in a near-future London reshaped by rising sea levels. Following three sisters gr…
- Lauren Gunderson on the Women of Hamlet
What if Gertrude had more power than we thought? What if Ophelia’s fate wasn’t sealed from the start? And what does it really mean to mother a prince who might be losing his mind? Playwright Lauren Gunderson, one of the most produced livin…
- Shakespeare’s Narrative Poems
How did early modern England understand race and how has that influenced our thinking? Race is often considered a recent construct, but Shakespeare’s works—both his plays and poetry—reveal a diverse world already aware of race, identity, a…
- Nisha Sharma on Adapting Shakespeare for Modern Romances
How do Shakespeare’s timeless themes translate to the South Asian diaspora? Could the man from Stratford himself be reimagined as a meddling auntie? Novelist Nisha Sharma’s If Shakespeare Were an Auntie trilogy takes on this challenge, tak…
- Olivia Hussey: The Girl on the Balcony (Rebroadcast)
Olivia Hussey, whose spirited portrayal of Juliet when she was just a teenager herself became iconic for generations of people watching the 1968 film adaptation of Shakespeare’s play, died on December 27, 2024. In 2019, we were lucky enoug…
- Shakespeare and his contemporaries, with Darren Freebury-Jones
What does it mean to be called an “upstart crow”? In 1592, a pamphlet titled Greene’s groats-worth of witte described William Shakespeare, in the first allusion to him as a playwright, with this phrase, calling him “an upstart crow, beauti…
- Directing Romeo and Juliet, with Sam Gold
2024 has been the year of the iconic lovers Romeo and Juliet, and director Sam Gold has brought a bold new production of the timeless tragedy to Broadway. With a fresh, contemporary approach, Gold transforms Shakespeare’s classic love stor…
- The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV, with Helen Castor
What happens when a king believes he rules by divine right yet loses the trust of his people through his tyrannical actions? In this episode, acclaimed historian Helen Castor brings us into the world that inspired Shakespeare’s most celebr…
- Studying Shakespeare Now
Forget dusty textbooks and silent classrooms—the Folger Shakespeare Library has released new teaching guides designed to make the Bard’s works more engaging, accessible, and inclusive than ever before. In this episode, Peggy O’Brien, the e…
- Farah Karim-Cooper on The Great White Bard (Rebroadcast)
Can you love Shakespeare and be an antiracist? Farah Karim-Cooper’s book The Great White Bard explores the language of race and difference in Shakespeare’s plays. Dr. Karim-Cooper also looks at the ways Shakespeare’s work became integral t…
- How Shakespeare Revolutionized Tragedy, with Rhodri Lewis
Shakespeare is often associated with tragedy, but did you know that he changed the genre? In this episode, Rhodri Lewis, professor of English at Princeton University and author of Shakespeare’s Tragic Art, explores how Shakespeare redefine…
- Tabitha Stanmore on Practical Magic in Shakespeare’s England
Forget witches, broomsticks, and cauldrons bubbling over—when it came to real magic in Shakespeare’s time, most people turned to their local cunning folk. These magical practitioners wielded spells to cure illnesses, recover lost items, an…
- Will Tosh on the Hidden Queer Lives of William Shakespeare
How did Shakespeare engage with the complexities of gender and sexuality in his time? Was his portrayal of cross-dressing and same-sex attraction simply for comedic effect, or did it reflect a deeper understanding of queer desire? In this…
- Throughlines, with Ayanna Thompson and Ruben Espinosa
How can educators effectively incorporate discussions about race into the study of Shakespeare and other premodern texts in the college classroom? Barbara Bogaev speaks with scholars Ayanna Thompson and Ruben Espinosa about Throughlines, a…
- Juliet, Then and Now, with Sophie Duncan
Was Romeo and Juliet your first brush with Shakespeare? Whether it was on stage, on screen in films by Franco Zeffirelli or Baz Luhrmann or Shonda Rhimes' Still Star-Crossed, or in the pages of the Folger Shakespeare edition, your early ex…
- Completing the Canon: Barry Edelstein on The Old Globe's Henry 6
This summer San Diego’s Old Globe became one of only 10 theaters in America who have produced all of Shakespeare’s plays (or 11, depending on how you count it) with their production of Henry VI, parts 1, 2, and 3. Artistic Director Barry E…
- Colman Domingo on Sing Sing and the Power of Theater
Can a musical comedy featuring Hamlet and Nightmare on Elm Street’s Freddy Krueger change lives? Actor, playwright, and director Colman Domingo thinks so. In Sing Sing, a new film from A24, Domingo stars in a true story about the power of…
- The Brief Life and Big Impact of the Federal Theatre Project, with James Shapiro
Imagine: a fiercely idealistic, politically progressive artist takes the stand at a hearing of the House Un-American Activities Committee. The chair of the committee is a hard-right demagogue with a gift for sound bites and a fixation with…
- A Tour of the Newly-Reopened Folger | Part 2: Research at the Folger
After a four-year renovation, the Folger Shakespeare Library is now open with 12,000 square feet of new public spaces. But behind the scenes, in our original building, we’ve also revamped the way we serve researchers working with the world…
- A Tour of the Newly-Reopened Folger | Part 1
On June 21, the Folger reopens after a four-year renovation. The reimagined Folger has brand-new public exhibition spaces where we can introduce visitors to Shakespeare and his plays, as well as showcase some of the treasures of the Folger…