Hamlet’s best friend, Horatio, gets 7 percent of the lines in "Hamlet" next to the title character “who never shuts up” (as one guest on this episode puts it) with 37 percent. This episode gives Horatio his moment to be center stage, revealing how he doesn’t have to be a one-note or one-dimensional character, even as his role is in service of Hamlet’s story. We discuss Horatio’s journey being one of learned bravery, whether Hamlet and Horatio may be more than friends, and the significance of Horatio and other characters studying in Wittenberg.

Guests on this episode are:

Dr. Jonathan Gil Harris, a professor of English at Ashoka University in Sonipat, India. His publications include guest editing a 2011 special edition of Shakespeare Quarterly that was all about Horatio, titled “Surviving Hamlet”

David Gow, who played Horatio in September 2023 staged reading at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Massachusetts opposite Finn Wittrock as Hamlet

This episode contains discussion of grief, murder, and suicide.

In "The Merchant of Venice," Portia is remarkable for her cleverness and the power she holds, and she’s ostensibly a hero of this story. But her journey is entwined with that of Shylock, the Jewish moneylender whose mistreatment makes "Merchant of Venice" a deeply troubling play. In this episode, we discuss just how extremely wealthy Portia is, whether or not Portia is likable (and how her likability is often approached differently in scholarship versus in performance), and how an actress may grapple with Portia’s role in Shylock’s ultimate fate.

Guests on this episode are:

Lynn Collins, who played Portia in the 2004 Merchant of Venice film directed by Michael Radford, starring alongside Joseph Fiennes, Jeremy Irons, and Al Pacino

Dr. Peter Holland, a professor of Shakespeare Studies at the University of Notre Dame teaching in both the English department and the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre

This episode contains explicit language and discussion of racism and religious intolerance.

In “Henry V,” King Henry gets a new foil: the French Dauphin, the heir apparent in France, England’s rival. In the conflict that culminates in the Battle of Agincourt, Shakespeare depicts the English with layers and complexity and ultimately with a great deal of nobility. Meanwhile, the French (in the text and sometimes even more so in performance) come off as arrogant, foppish, and often quite silly. This episode delves into discussion of the Dauphin’s relationship with his father the king, where Shakespeare diverges from real history, and how — even in a history play set at wartime — this character can be mined for a lot of comedy.

Guests on this episode are Stephen Michael Spencer, who played the Dauphin at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival in 2023, and Dr. Elizabeth Pentland, a professor at York University in Toronto who specializes in Renaissance literature, including research on literary exchanges between England and France during the period of the French civil wars.

featuring interviews with actor Michael Blake, Pilobolus choreographers Matt Kent and Renée Jaworski, and SUNY New Paltz professor Matthieu Chapman

A Shakespeare play that can be at turns heartwarming and troubling, “The Tempest” features two major characters who don’t look like the humans around them: Caliban and Ariel. Caliban, repeatedly described as “monstrous” by other characters, is enslaved by Prospero, the play’s protagonist. This episode delves into discussion about post-colonial interpretations of this play written in the early 17th century, about the significance of Caliban’s mother being a witch from Algiers, and about varying approaches to “The Tempest” theme of choosing forgiveness over revenge and the question of whether Caliban’s ending is one with reconciliation.

Guests on this episode are:

• Matt Kent (he/him) and Renée Jaworski (she/her), artistic directors of the acclaimed modern dance company Pilobolus. They crafted the choreography for “The Tempest” directed by Aaron Posner and Teller (of Penn and Teller), a stage production that depicts Caliban as a two-headed creature played by two performers

• Michael Blake (he/him), who played Caliban for the Stratford Festival in 2018, among his nine seasons at the Stratford, Ontario festival. Michael is currently portraying the Player in “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” opposite Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan.

• Dr. Matthieu Chapman (he/him), a theatre studies professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz whose publications include the books “Anti-Black Racism in Early Modern English Drama” and “Shattered: Fragments of a Black Life.”

This episode contains discussion of slavery, racial violence, involuntary intoxication, and an accusation of rape.

To view photos and video footage of the performances crafted by Pilobolus and by Michael Blake, visit shakespearesshadows.com/caliban-video