Bickering Peaks: A Twin Peaks Podcast

What do you get when you combine three acts of a tragedy, two acts of a pastoral romantic comedy, and a sprinkle of the supernatural on top for good measure? A problem play for the ages: The Winter's Tale. If it feels like we've been down this road before, it's because this late Romance borrows many of its themes from some of the great tragedies of Shakespeare's career, like Othello. Jealous husbands, chaste wives, and accusations of infidelity abound in the first half of the play. Then -- as we've seen very recently in Pericles -- we jump sixteen years into the future, following the fallout of Leontes' disastrous accusation of Hermione, the death of son Mamillius, and the banishment of the infant Perdita to discover that all may not be lost after all. This smash-cut tonal shift that leads us from wintry Sicilia to summer-time Bohemia and the introduction of a long-lost daughter and a marriage crisis that brings the destroyed family back together again, possibly with a little help from the gods, perhaps (sha

Religion is always a touchy subject, but for most of the world today it's not nearly as dangerous a point of discussion as it was during Shakespeare's lifetime. Protestant and Catholic debates hadn't just destroyed previously unassailable assumptions on articles of faith, they'd led to war, religious persecution to the point of murder, and constant political and religious upheaval. While Shakespeare's time was one of relatively steady Protestant rule, the crises of the past hundred years hadn't disappeared magically upon Shakespeare's birth, and his plays reflect a conflicted mixture of religious viewpoints in the shape of his characters and the stories they live through. This episode we looked at the history of religion in England, and then how that history manifested in the plays. Notes: The video Lindsay references around anti-Judaism practices in Elizabethan England is a good watch! The Folger Shakespeare Unlimited episode on religion is also a fabulous listen and we'd highly recommend it if we say any

For a place almost synonymous with class distinctions, England was only occasionally the site of class confrontations in Shakespeare's plays. He saved the really juicy bits for his final Roman play - Coriolanus. Join us for a chat about the class distinctions, gender conflict, and (naturally for us) politics prevalent across one of Shakespeare's darker plays. Notes: Despite Lindsay and Aidan's best guesses at history, the plebian voice in the Roman Republic were called tribunes, not praetors (who performed a different political function). Having the text nearby might help in the future, kids. Ancient Bickering: For a play focused deeply on the past, we wanted to bring the topic back to the present: if Coriolanus were to run for political office today (in the United States), would he find success?

We are not Shakespeare scholars. We have neither the education, resources, or frankly the intelligence to engage with Shakespeare’s work the way anyone who’s actually published a paper about Shakespeare does. We are amateurs. But none of the names we’re talking about today are amateurs. All of them have left some sort of important imprint on the study of Shakespeare. And we've rounded up the highlights and put our own Bicks-ified spin on it for your listening pleasure. We hope you'll enjoy! Links: A decent history summary (via Encyclopedia Britannica)  Another quick summary of big names Francis Meres: https://shakespearedocumented.folger.edu/resource/document/palladis-tamia-one-earliest-printed-assessments-shakespeares-works-and-first John Weever: https://shakespearedocumented.folger.edu/resource/document/epigrams-oldest-cut-critical-responses-and-allusions-shakespeare-and-three-his Ben Jonson: https://literatureessaysamples.com/a-biting-elegy-ben-jonson-on-shakespeare/ John Dryden: htt

Getting into the late romances -- starting here with Pericles -- means we're nearing the end of our sojourn through William Shakespeare's career. But these are a fascinating quartet of plays, and Pericles is a fantastic introduction to the complicated morality and plot cues that we find Shakespeare playing with throughout these final plays, after years of creativity and success under his belt. And because these are less well-known plays (with the exception of The Tempest), discussing them feels fresh and interesting. We hope you'll agree. Join us as we journey through the Mediterranean with Pericles, Prince of Tyre and his trials and triumphs on his search for family. Notes - John Gower's poem "The Tale of Apollonius of Tyre" from his Confessio Amantis, a 33,000 line poem from 1386-1390  - Lindsay's confusion stems from this dude, who shares a name but not a life with the titular Pericles. - The authorship of Pericles has always been questioned, and this New Yorker article illustrates the "confusing ridd

It's something we've talked about relentlessly on this podcast: teaching Shakespeare is hard. Between the dense language, historical context, and cultural weight of the name "Shakespeare" there are a ton of barriers to getting students invested in the words of Billy S. So this episode we gathered together three teachers (including Lindsay) and talked all about the educational process. Resources, special techniques, success stories and challenges - all the topics we could think of to discuss with other educators. If you've ever wondered what goes into a teacher's plan for Shakespeare class, or considered sending your child off to a summer drama camp that's all about Shakespeare, take a listen in on our experts' discussion! Notes: Huge shout out to our two guests, Francis and Rachel, who joined us from the UK and Oregon, respectively, to share their experiences and wisdom about teaching Shakespeare! Majestic Theatre is where our Rachel plies her trade as bard director and performer for hire. If you're in Or

It's a play all about dualities that don't duel quite as much as we might think. Antony and Cleopatra - man and woman - Rome and Egypt - Love and War - every way you look at this play there are nice, clean delineations... until there aren't. We enjoyed reading and talking about this one because it refuses to be pinned down or defined, much like its titular characters. We hope you enjoy the conversation as well! Notes: If you don't know anything about Ptolemaic Egypt (like Aidan, who spent a solid three minutes explaining it very poorly), check out the Wikipedia entry at the very least. Cleopatra (1963) is only 3 hours long, not 5, but we still couldn't bring ourselves to watch it. Let us know if you did and enjoyed it though! Ancient Bickerings: Which type of betrayal is more damaging in the play - the romantic, or the political?

There were lots of ways we could have looked at the topic of Shakespeare's most famous plays. A deeply analytical examination of what makes some plays rise above others. A detailed case study of a single play, like Romeo & Juliet or Hamlet, that has remained popular over the years. Or even a dismissal of the very idea of popularity. Instead, we decided on a listicle format. What can we say? We've been moving all week, and we needed to relax and have some fun. We hope you'll have some too as we rank our top five most popular plays - if we were the sole deciders of what is popular. Notes: The Shakespeareances list of most often produced plays was our basis for winnowing down the list to the most common productions for establishing our lists. Our five categories for ranking the popularity-factor (TM pending) of each play were as follows: Characters Plot/story Quotability Accessibility Relevance

Macbeth may be Shakespeare's second most famous play after Hamlet, and for good measure. The speeches and quotes have been seared into English-speaking culture, the phrase "Lady Macbeth" denotes all sorts of things (depending on your point of view), and it may be our most durable parable for the dangers of too much ambition. It's also one of Shakespeare's shortest plays (and the shortest tragedy), with numerous well-received film adaptations over the years to help keep it in the public consciousness. We were lucky enough to be joined by returning fellow Shakespeare nerd (and David Lynch fan) Brittany, who brought a much needed third perspective on some of the key themes and character discussions of this play: is Lady Macbeth to be understood as a woman, or a unsexed would-be male competing in a man's world? Are the central pair a good couple? And a return to our old question: what does this play have to tell us about what makes a good king? We talk about all that and more in this episode! Notes: We discuss

It is natural to wonder what Shakespeare was trying to tell us about money. He was, after all, the owner of his own theatre company, a man who made several wise financial decisions involving his land holdings in his later years. He’d grown up around money. Surely we can read into his plays and discover something of the business acumen and economic philosophy of the man, right? Maybe. Maybe not. All the same, we’re going to look at the various depictions of money and economic concerns within the works of Shakespeare this week on The Bicks Pod.   Ancient Bickerings: If Shakespeare were writing a play based on a modern financial or economic news headline, what story would he choose?   Notes: - For an interesting look at mentions of money in Shakespeare, check out the aptly titled "Money in Shakespeare" by Fumita Ojima - Funnily enough, the Watcher YouTube series Puppet History did a hilarious deep dive into the world of 'coin clipping' (and Isaac Newton, who was Master of the Mint from 1699 until his death

One of Shakespeare's lesser-known plays, Timon of Athens (aka "How to Make Friends and Alienate People") may not be his most engaging yarn -- being co-authored by Thomas Middleton strikes your humble podcasters as one potential reason why -- but that doesn't mean that it can't be relatable and interesting, or that it won't resonate with modern life. On the contrary! A story about an uber-wealthy man who literally gives away the entirety of his fortune to the freeloading Athenians he believes are his friends but who abandon him the moment the going gets tough...feels strikingly modern in this day of growing wealth inequity and the reality of late-stage capitalism. What a cheery way to start... Well, join us today for a conversation about misanthropy, greed, and wealth and how it resonates from the Ancient Greeks all the way through to the 21st century via Shakespeare and Middleton's Timon of Athens. Notes: - "

Who has three daughters, two thumbs, and one inheritance to distribute? That guy! *pointing at King Lear* That simple premise becomes the source for one of Shakespeare's most well known and tragic plays. It's also a strangely unsatisfying journey into family dysfunction and moral dilemma, so join us as we chat about the characters, themes, and structure underpinning the tragic history of King Lear! Notes: Lindsay was listening to the 1994 BBC radio production of King Lear, available on YouTube.  The quote Lindsay was looking for (from Lear) is: "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!"  "The true chronicle history of King Leir, and his three daughters, Gonorill, Ragan, and Cordella As it hath bene diuers and sundry times lately acted" is the official title of the other Lear play that was contemporaneous to Shakespeare's version, and is available online. Ancient Bickerings: Which character gets the ending they deserve?

This is a very special episode dedicated to the era most near and dear to (at least one of) us: the 90s. It was an era that kicked off with parachute pants and Kurt Cobain, and ended with Friends at the top of the ratings chart and Beyoncé still a member of Destiny's Child. In-between there were a whole lot of Shakespeare movies, so we gathered together to ask a few questions. We were joined in these questions by Brittany, a recent Twin Peaks convert and fellow Shakespeare nerd, who also has fond memories of the 90s and the cultural milieu around it. The three of us dove into some especially pertinent topics like: Why were there so many of these kinds of movies? Do the movies hold up to this day? And what do they tell us about the era in which they were made? It's a fun chat full of more Britney Spears and N Sync references than we usually manage to fit in. Join us for this one! Notes: Our semi-definitive list of 90s Shakespeare movies and adaptations can be found through this Google Doc - let us know if

Another one of Shakespeare's problem plays, All's Well That Ends Well doesn't really, well... end well. It's a play deeply concerned about gender norms, sex, and lies, with some interesting characters who - like those in other problem plays - defy the typical conventions we usually associate with Shakespeare's better known figures. We talk about these themes and the characters that lay trapped within them, in this episode! Notes: As always, the Folger accompanying essay, "All's Well That Ends Well: A Modern Perspective" is a good resource for digging into some of the thornier issues of this play. The Shmoop guide ain't half bad either! The BBC version really does rip off the baroque and other famous painters shot-for-shot at times - well worth checking out for that alone! The film Aidan mentions in the outro is definitely Ran by Akira Kurosawa. not Rain, which is a lesser known film that doesn't sound nearly as good. Ancient Bickerings: It's a simple question for this one: is all well at the end of th

Shakespeare's ability to write convincing human emotions is one of the reasons why he remains such a popular playwright to this day. His works explore what it truly means to be human -- warts and all. And the warts are what we're talking about in today's episode, in which we take a look at the roots of jealousy in Shakespeare's plays.  From the murderous rage of Othello to the living room comedy of The Merry Wives of Windsor, jealousy gets its hooks into Shakespeare's characters in ways that are both surprising and surprisingly mundane. Whether it's the ridiculous farce of Sir John Falstaff's attempts at cuckolding Masters Ford and Page, the somewhat Oedipal longing underpinning Hamlet's madness, or the shocking descent faced by Othello or The Winter's Tale's Leontes, Shakespeare has a way of making jealousy appear out of nowhere and yet feel like a natural part of the worlds he creates; one might even go so far as to say that the 'green-eyed monster' is its own unique character whenever it arrives. So joi

Jealousy, sex, revenge, racism and outcasts - Othello is a play brimming with emotional themes and characters swayed by those same emotions. We discuss all these themes, try to place them within a bit of context, then discuss how they interact as we look into one of Shakespeare's most beloved and troubling tragedies. Notes: As is often the case, Folger's essay, "Othello: A Modern Perspective" gives a good overview of some of the themes in the play in a modern setting, though it doesn't tackle race as directly as the play forces you to. The 2001 production "O" (here on IMDB) was a surprisingly ok attempt at updating the story for a modern context - consider checking it out if you haven't. Ancient Bickerings: The question this episode was a simple one: who is the most jealous character in Othello?

While it's certainly possible to do Shakespeare without any hint of comedy (and lord knows we've seen a few productions, especially on film, that lean that way), it's also possible to have Shakespeare plays that get the audience rolling in the aisles. This episode we talk all about Shakespeare's comedy - not the comedies, but the sense of humour and jokes that have kept people laughing for 400 years. Is Shakespeare's text itself still funny? Or does it rely entirely on the actors to make it work? What parts of comedy are universal among different productions, and which ones need you to keep a 17th century dictionary at hand to get? Find out with this episode all about Shakespeare's funny business. Notes: "Shakespeare's Use of Comedy in Tragedy" by Arthur Huntington Newton (from 1906) gives a solid background on the titular topic. The article about Shakespeare's Holy Trinity bust is quite telling of how Shakespeare may have seen himself. Ancient Bickerings: We asked three related questions of one another

While many of Shakespeare's plays are talked about as being timeless, most of them are in fact very grounded in the specificities of Elizabethan and Jacobean England and the larger European renaissance. Measure for Measure is no different, but because of the topics on display, as well as how little our society has actually changed around those topics, the themes of female sexuality, religion and politics, and moral laxity still feel just as fresh as they did in Shakespeare's time. Join us for a chat about this surprisingly fun and partially subversive play on this episode! Ancient Bickerings: Do any of the characters in Measure for Measure get what they deserve? Notes: "Measure for Measure: A Modern Perspective" has some salient points regarding the play's modern topics. Handfasting - read all about it! Aidan called a Romulan Warbird a "Romulan Bird of Prey" and will happily submit his nerd card to the nearest enforcement officer.

In 1996 Joni Mitchell released two compilation albums - Hits and the appropriately contrapuntal Misses - to show how even the most well-regarded of artists occasionally creates something that never really finds the audiences they might deserve. When it comes to Shakespeare, the Bard had a number of stinkers in his repertoire, including ones we've already covered like Henry VI (parts 1 & 3 especially), but also a number of later works that have never captured audiences the way Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet or Midsummer Night's Dream have. This episode we're taking a look at some of those lesser known plays and asking the simple question: why? What sets these plays apart from the canonical "great works" and what lessons can we as more modern audiences take from their successes, failures, and experiments? So join us for a talk about Shakespeare's swings that didn't quite land with a resounding thud. Ancient Bickerings: This episode we discussed the question: which of the lesser known plays do you think is pr

Troilus and Cressida is one of Shakespeare's least popular, least performed plays, and there are a multitude of reasons why that might be. None of the characters are particularly likeable. The various plots are mercenary, cruel, and violent. And it's certainly not the easiest play to classify, and it has baffled scholars since Shakespearean scholars first emerged: it is absolutely one of Shakespeare's "problem plays", defying all attempts at categorization. But does it deserve to be cast aside and ignored as it has been for these reasons? Today we discuss the various issues in this play and try to discover if there is redemption for one of Shakespeare's most confusing plays. Is it a postmodern masterpiece? Does it have anything to tell us about capitalism? Is our inability to pigeonhole this play one of its strengths? Ancient Bickerings Can this play be salvaged? Or does it even need to be salvaged? Notes: - Some scholars list The Merchant of Venice as a problem play, so technically Lindsay misspoke whe