Shaking Up Shakespeare launches on Jan. 15. The ten-episode podcast series explores William Shakespeare’s work through the lens of Canadian theatre and society.
From a critical standpoint, the project team interviewed actors, directors, playwrights, dramaturges, theatre students, scholars, and many others between September 2022 and June 2023, discussing topics of gender discrimination, racism, and ableism.
“In spring 2021 we convened an online event with professional actors, directors, and playwrights to get a sense of how casting practices affected their work. Although the event’s primary focus was on contemporary theatre, one of the names that kept popping up was Shakespeare,” says Marlis Schweitzer, a theatre professor and podcast co-host.
“And so, we decided to host a follow-up symposium to engage more directly with Shakespeare, accompanied by a podcast featuring interviews with artists, scholars, students, and other experts (though we soon realized that everyone is an expert on Shakespeare in some shape or form),” she explains.
Hope Van Der Merwe, graduate of the theatre program and podcast co-host, shares, “Going into the project, we all had a vague sense of the kinds of issues and topics we would like to explore in each of our episodes — interrogating cis-heteropatriarchy and ableism in theatre has always been something I have been interested in, and it was something I kept returning to throughout my undergrad.”
Liam Lockhart-Rush, also a recent graduate in the theatre program and podcast co-host, adds that he is most excited to share new perspectives on Shakespeare that listeners may not have considered before.
“Because his work is so ingrained in the fabric of our society and our culture, I feel like most people have strong opinions or preconceptions about Shakespeare and I hope that listeners will be challenged to learn from our incredible interviewees who have so much insight to offer,” he says.
While these perspectives might be difficult to hear and uncomfortable for some listeners, Van Der Merwe emphasizes the importance of discomfort in life and theatre for learning, unlearning, and growing.
Additionally, Shaking Up Shakespeare mirrors their values of dismantling and unraveling ableism through offering ASL translation videos for each episode to increase accessibility.
“Dawn Jani Birley, a deaf actor who was interviewed by Jeff Ho on tour with Prince Hamlet, has led a team to fully translate every episode of the podcast into ASL,” explains Lockhart-Rush. “I am excited as these translations will help the podcast be accessible to deaf audiences and encourage these conversations to reach as many people as possible.”
Schweitzer further highlights that the series shows how everyone in Canada is affected by Shakespeare in some way. “Our goal with the series is to offer a multi-faceted view of Shakespeare in Canada — one that acknowledges how Shakespeare has been used to prop up colonialism, patriarchy, ableism, and white supremacy, and also recognizes (and celebrates) the exciting ways that artists today are reworking Shakespeare to critique and challenge existing power structures.
“We don’t offer any definitive answers nor do we preach any one way of thinking about Shakespeare. As our podcast title suggests, our goal is to shake up the way people think about Shakespeare,” Schweitzer adds.
Available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, click here to learn more.
