Bickering Peaks: A Twin Peaks Podcast

Shakespeare may have penned some of the most memorable characters, from Shylock to Hamlet to King Lear, but he's also shown up as a character himself over the years. This episode we are looking at a different kind of Shakespeare, the man created for the screen (both big and small), and the various tropes and modes of interpretation that show up over and over again. We look to have fun with a character that many others also have fun with - the legend turned tangible: the fictional Shakespeare. List of Works Discussed: Black Adder "Back and Forth" Special Doctor Who "The Shakespeare Code" Good Omens "Hard Times" Upstart Crow Anonymous All is True Shakespeare in Love Notes: Kyle Kallgren, aka the Brows Held High YouTube channel, has a great analysis of Roland Emmerich's 2011 Anonymous which we reference several times in the episode. The Brows Held High video on Shakespeare in Love is also great. Liza Tarbuck is the actress who plays Anne Hathaway so well in Upstart Crow. Larry David's WGA award acc

One of Shakespeare's better loved comedies, Twelfth Night brings the gender-bending of Merchant of Venice and Two Gentlemen of Verona together with the love-as-illness of Romeo & Juliet, then stirs everything together with a sense of carnival-esque revelry. Join us for a discussion about love, class, gender, and justice as we look over the characters and conundrums of this thoroughly enjoyable play. Ancient Bickerings: This episode we're looking at a simple question: does Malvolio deserve the punishment he receives? Notes: We slagged on the Trevor Nunn 1996 filmed adaptation (Aidan called it a stage production once or twice) of Twelfth Night a bit, but it is definitely worth a watch if you have the chance. Helena Bonham Carter is particularly enjoyable as Olivia. The 2017 Globe production is also available for rental or purchase from the Globe website, and features a bit more comedic tone.

What do a bunch of 400 year old plays have to tell us about mental health? A surprising bit actually. This episode we're looking at four character - Jaques from As You Like It, Hamlet and Ophelia from Hamlet, and Lady Macbeth from Macbeth - to consider how Shakespeare handled issues of mental health, how his audience would have understood these characters' issues, and how we understand and talk about them today. Ancient Bickerings:  Which of our four characters selected today would most benefit from being transported to the modern day and receiving the full suite of mental health supports available today? Notes: We referred to a number of resources to help inform us about the understanding of mental health in Elizabethan & Jacobean England, including: John Hall's (Shakespeare's son-in-law) casebook on physical and mental ailments and his (always) successful treatments A quick summary of the four humours and how Shakespeare would have understood them The Shakespeare Birth Place, British Library, and

Hamlet is arguably the first of Shakespeare's "Big Plays" -- the magnificent tragedies, the ones that everyone studies in their English classes, that hold a special place in the canon because of their thematic and dramatic importance. Oh, sure, we've covered Richard III and Romeo & Juliet and The Merchant of Venice already; no one is denying the importance and vibrancy of these and other earlier plays. But you have to admit that Hamlet (along with King Lear, Macbeth, and Othello) represents some of the grandest of Shakespeare's writing and thinking. In today's episode, we've once again attempted to break down the play into the biggest umbrella themes. We ask a lot of questions, about the imp[act of grief on a person's mental state, the treatment of gender and sexuality, what does it mean to revenge your murdered father -- typical stuff. We make no pretenses that we have any of the answers to the questions we're raising, and we won't come to any novel understanding of the play or the themes found within (

Preamble: As mentioned in the episode itself, we recorded this episode using Nvidia's Broadcast app for the first time to try and cut down on background noise. Our first tests went fine but this episode wound up coming across as a bit choppy and digitized. Our apologies - we'll be looking to smooth things out for future episodes! Have you ever wished you (or someone else) could vanish into thin air? Ever refused to budge an inch? Ever thought the game was up? Then, whether you knew it or not, you've been influenced by Shakespeare. Today's episode goes into the myriad ways Shakespeare still has an outsized influence on our lives, especially in the realms of the English language and literature. We're accompanied for this trip by Stephen Marche's book, How Shakespeare Changed Everything, and we hope you'll join us for the journey down the rabbit hole (not a Shakespearean phrase, to be fair) into how Shakespeare's words continue to change and shape the world today. Notes: A quick check in reveals that the Eng

Sometimes, you really can judge a book by its cover, or even, just by its title. That's the case for this Shakespearean comedy, which tips it's hat in all sorts of directions without ever proceeding down any of them. It's a befuddling, funny, serious, ridiculous, gender-bending and gender-conforming play with a whole lot to say about nothing at all. As You Like It, is open to interpretation and not much else, but it can be a thoroughly enjoyable romp in the right hands. We focused our discussion on the themes and motifs of the play - gender, love, court vs. country - and wound up circling round and round the same few points, including just how awesome Rosalind is as a character, how odd the structure of the plot is, and the confusing nature of Jaques. All in all, it was a very strange play. Ancient Bickerings For a strange play, we picked kind of a strange (and personal) question: if you had to live in one - court, or country - which would it be? Additional Notes The Folger Essay, "As You Like It: A Mode

We live in a politically-charged age -- how can anyone deny that? But it's likely true that there has never been an age that hasn't been touched by politics at all, whether by the formal politics of our various governmental systems or the personal politics of our daily interactions; Aristotle himself claimed that human beings are inherently political creatures, and the wars and elections of the last two thousand years has yet to prove him wrong. So since our podcast is, in its current incarnation, focused on the world of William Shakespeare, and given the current climate in which we live, it makes sense that we would turn this political focus on the Early Modern period and the Bard himself. How does Shakespeare operate politically? How can we use his works to inform our views of the world today? And should we even bother? Ancient Bickerings: Shakespeare's theatre company, The Chamberlain's Men (later The King's Men), were not immune from the politics of their day. They famously found themselves caught up in

Power, politics, ambition, and honour. Four human facets set across the backdrop of a failing Republic. Is Julius Caesar the most topical play to talk about on November 3, 2020? Yes, but we swear we didn't plan it that way - sometimes the stars simply align. We talked about the characters and their foibles, the historical factors that fed into the play, and Shakespeare's decision to avoid easy answers when talking about one of the most divisive figures in Ancient History. We circled round and round trying to find those answers, but wound up in mired in the midst of a play that continues to excite with its staging, its rhetoric, and the timeless lines that stride through history like so many colossi. Answers? Maybe not, but a play worth looking at in this day and age? Absolutely. Notes: Lindsay watched this Tony Robinson documentary about Julius Caesar and it was mentioned a few times in our discussion. We also discussed this awesome feat of Caesar's at the battle of Alesia, which Buzzfeed took on to the j

What goes on behind the scenes to run a full-scale Shakespeare festival? How are the plays selected? How long does it take? How much does it cost? This episode we found out the answers to all these questions with the delightful help of Freewill Shakespeare Festival, the Bicks' very own local Shakespeare show that's been running for just over 30 years! We were so very lucky to be joined this episode by Nikola Tonn, managing director of the festival, and David Horak, the artistic director for Freewill Shakespeare. We grilled them on the numerous steps involved in bringing a production to life, from play selection all the way through to opening night and the tallying of the receipts. We also cover a bit of the COVID blues because they're awfully hard to escape these days. Notes: Check out the Freewill Shakespeare website and maybe consider making a trip to Edmonton to take it in next year if you're at all capable! Macbeth and Much Ado are two of our faves! If you've never been, check out these lovely photos

Henry V is one of Shakespeare's grandest and most legendary plays, partly because it depicts the stunning historical victories of one of England's greatest kings, but also because Shakespeare skillfully weaves so many universal themes into the events of this play. From masculinity and warfare and what makes a great king to death and the loyalty of friends, Shakespeare takes what is essentially nothing more than a grand war-filled saga and imbues it with depth and meaning that the siege of Harfleur or the Battle of Agincourt don't hold on their own. The end result is a complex story that glorifies war at the same time that it calls it into question, in that way that it seems only great literature can do. ** Mea culpa: It's not Emma Thompson but Kristen Scott Thomas in the episode of Fleabag referenced by Lindsay in this episode. Blame the cold medicine, and watch that scene here: Kristin Scott Thomas’s epic speech on Fleabag Notes: - Greek Chorus - Henry V history: Here are a few of the videos we watched an

Why is it so easy to buy trinkets and knick-knacks with the face of an English poet who's been dead for 400 years? More importantly, why are we so willing to buy them? Those questions are the crux of what we're getting to in this week's podcast: the Shakespeare economy. We take a dive through the fundamental questions around selling art in the modern capitalist world: How do value art? Who benefits from selling it? From buying it? We also discuss the particularities of those questions around the long-dead Shakespeare. Naturally we bring up Marvel & Disney, art vs. entertainment, and all sorts of other things as we wheel into this particular wheelhouse. Join us for a long but compelling conversation all about selling Shakespeare. Ancient Bickerings: Instead of a debate, this time we searched for three categories of items: the tackiest souvenir, the most expensive Shakespeare item, and the coolest ones. Lindsay selected these particular items: Tackiest: Shakespeare Rubber Ducky OR Shakespeare Soap Mo

Merry wives, jealous husbands, faeries and a wedding! This play - rumored to be written at the behest of Queen Elizabeth herself - is a comedy unlike any of the others in Shakespeare's repertoire. An almost proto-restoration play about class, fidelity, and trust, it's a forward looking play that retains the very serious ability to make us laugh. This week we talk about the themes, comedy, and characters present in the play, especially around gender and jealousy. Join us for an exploration of this rarely produced, but very gratifying play. Notes:  Thankfully (and unbeknownst to Lindsay at the time of recording), the Folger Shakespeare library has put their "A Modern Perspective" set of essays online, and we encourage you to check out the one dedicated to this play. Lindsay also located this wonderful mini-essay online (also from Folger) that dives into what makes this comedy so different from Shakespeare's others. Ancient Bickerings:  Our question was a simple one: who are the more untrustworthy charact

If you're like us, you probably think that the intersection of Shakespeare and the big and small screen might not be a very important one. But you, like us, would be wrong: the two are more intimately entwined than you would believe! From the early days of capturing live action on film, people have been absolutely obsessed with playing in Shakespeare's sand box. In today's episode, we are looking at how film innovations helped to translate Shakespeare to this new medium in the last year of the 19th century, how it helped define filmed drama in the middle 20th century, and how filmed Shakespeare pushed the boundaries of both film and television into the first decades of the 21st century. Ancient Bickerings: Where will Shakespeare on screen go in the next century? Notes: Shakespeare on Film by Maurice Hindle "Viewing Shakespeare on Film" timeline from Encyclopedia Britannica Clips: - 1899 scene from King John - Vitagraph's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1909) - Asta Nielsen's star vehicle, Hamlet (1920) - The

One of Shakespeare's most beloved and often-produced plays, Much Ado About Nothing is a very Elizabethan story about men and women, and the lies they're told about each other. Featuring the beloved template for your hosts, Benedick and Beatrice are two of the most accessible characters to modern viewers, and their relationship has become the template for many other relationships of the more liberal ages that followed Shakespeare's world. Join us for a conversation about those two characters, the preoccupations with fidelity and chastity evident in the play, and the limitations of Shakespeare in representing the reality of relationships between men and women. Ancient Bickerings: This week's ancient bickerings is a very simple one: Are Beatrice and Benedick truly in love or is it simply a ruse? Or to put it another way, does the deception used to bring them together reveal their existing love for one another or create it wholecloth?

One of the best parts of approaching the Shakespearean plays as we have - that is, in a roughly chronological manner - is that we’ve seen the growth of Shakespeare as a writer. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the recent BBC adaptations of Shakespeare's historical tetralogies in their acclaimed series The Hollow Crown. We talked about the first tetralogy - 1 Henry VI, 2 Henry VI, 3 Henry VI, and Richard III - but today we're diving into the second tetralogy, the famed Henriad, comprising Richard II, 1 Henry IV, 2 Henry IV, and Henry V which were the subject of the first cycle of The Hollow Crown back in 2012.    Featuring an all-star cast and a massive budget, The Hollow Crown is a masterful retelling of Shakespeare's famous Henriad. That they aired it in the same year as the London Olympics and at the same time as Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee celebrations were underway says something about the way Shakespeare is still regarded by his cultural descendants. It also leaves us wondering about the rol

So you've read Part 1 of Henry IV and it left you wanting more huh? You wanted more Falstaff? You got it! You wanted more Hal? You got a bit of that too! More of the same engaging, utterly entertaining set of tight character interactions and seamless plot integration? Not so much. This episode we talk about the complete inversion of Part 1 that is Part 2,  with the youthful enthusiasm of Hotspur and Hal replaced with the eminent demise of Hal's two father figures. Lying, rumor-mongering, and hardly any meaningful human interaction await as we dive into this play and near the end of Shakespeare's love of English history. Notes: The actor who played Falstaff in the BBC Production was none other than Oscar nominee Antony Quayle, of Laurence of Arabia fame. Ancient Bickerings: This time we discussed whether or not Hal believed his father had truly died when he found him asleep at the end of Act 4 - which has all sorts of implications for his relationship with his father, the crown, and even Falstaff.

“Shakespeare must be heard, not read.” It’s a common-enough refrain, spoken by scholars and fans alike, and for good reason. We were lucky enough to be joined by a panel of Shakespearean actors who proved that the act of performing Shakespeare is a living, breathing art. Join us and our guests -- Hillary Weintraub, Jennifer Hotchkiss, and Dakin Matthews -- for a conversation about performing that shows that all the world truly is a stage...

Prince Hal, Hotspur, and Falstaff make up three of Shakespeare's most memorable characters, and they're all found in the same play! Join us for an exploration of the themes, dynamics, and characters of this first part of the second Henriad Trilogy. If the tricky numerology won't get you, the play itself probably will, filled as it with hilarious scenes, beautiful language, and a straightforward, easy to follow story. Notes: The IMDB entry on the BBC production solves many of our questions about actors' names, as usual. John Oldcastle is the primary historical source for Falstaff. Ancient Bickerings: This episode we dive into Hal's true intentions towards Falstaff: attentive son (or son surrogate), or shifty elderly-abuser? While we don't frame it quite that way, the play has more than enough room for interpretation of Henry's role in Falstaff's inevitable downfall.

"Let's kill all the lawyers" is one of the most famous lines from Shakespeare, but what did the bard really think about the legal system? And more importantly, how is it presented in his plays? This episode is all about examining that angle of Shakespeare's work, looking at how different plays and characters interact with, talk about, and interpret the law. We also discuss the questions of morality inherent in any discussion of justice, as well as provide a bit of background and information on the multiple different court systems in existence in Shakespeare's time. Ancient Bickerings: This episode the question was a simple one: "In Shakespeare, is the law a source of good?" Despite the simplicity of the question, the answer was anything but, as Lindsay grappled with the full nuance of how the law is presented in Shakespeare's plays. Notes: Aidan called "New Place" the "New House" in his intro, because he's a dingus. He regrets the error.  Shakespeare and the Legal Process: Four Essays by J.D.E helped in

In our humble opinion (we both agree so we're calling it a singular thing here), this is one of Shakespeare's greatest plays, maybe even his single greatest. Love, debt, justice, prejudice, the law, and the competing desires for mercy and vengeance: it's a fantastic cocktail of themes, motives, and characters that Shakespeare has conjured and which audiences have been grappling with for hundreds of years. More than just the fantastic speeches given by some of its characters (though they are amazing), this play has remained relevant throughout the years for its nuanced exploration of these topics and the characters that provoke the viewer into exploring them. We loved talking about this play so much there's nary a break in our conversation, as every element of the story is tightly entwined with the others, so that a discussion of one just naturally flows into another. So grab your ducats and prepare for a discussion of one of the bard's most humanistic, complicated, and mentally engaging plays. Ancient Bicke