Free Thinking

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Free Thinking: Shakespeare, history, pathology and dissonant sound

Shakespeare, history, pathology and dissonant sound

BBC Radio 4 - Free Thinking, Shakespeare, history, pathology and dissonant sound

Shahidha Bari on a new staging of Shakespeare's Henry VI. Why is Warwick a key figure?

RSC director Owen Horsley and researchers Andrea Smith, Derek Dunne and Ellie Chan join Shahidha Bari to discuss Shakespeare, rebellion, revenge and dissonant Tudor sound.

The first pathologist in English writing? Andrea Smith looks at the figure of Warwick in Shakespeare's Henry VI. Owen Horsley is directing a new production for the RSC which involves a large community chorus.  Derek Dunne's research looks at revenge - and at forgery and bureaucracy in the Tudor period whilst Ellie Chan's focus is on dissonant music. Shahidha Bari host the conversation. 

Owen Horsley has directed parts 2 and 3 of Henry VI at the RSC. Henry VI Rebellion runs at the RSC in Stratford upon Avon from April 1st to May 28th 2022 and Wars of the Roses runs at the RSC from April 11th to June 4th.  And, April 23rd sees the RSC stage birthday celebrations for Shakespeare and online insights into the rehearsal room.  

Ellie Chan is a Leverhulme Research Fellow in the Music Department at the University of Manchester and a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker.  

Derek Dunne is Cardiff University and has written Shakespeare, Revenge Tragedy, and Early Modern Law: Vindictive Justice 

Andrea Smith is at the University of East Anglia, where her research focuses on radio and audio productions of Shakespeare. 

You can find a playlist of discussions about Shakespeare on the Free Thinking programme website https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06406hm and a collection of new versions of Shakespeare’s greatest plays recorded for broadcast and available as the Shakespeare Sessions https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0655br3 

New Generation Thinkers is the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to turn research into radio.  

Producer: Ruth Watts

Image:  RSC's Henry VI: Rebellion.  From Left: Peter Moreton (Salisbury), Minnie Gale (Margaret), Mark Quartley (Henry VI), Ben Hall (Suffolk) 
Image credit: Photo by Ellie Kurttz © RSC

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Shakespeare, history, pathology and dissonant sound

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