Welcome to the first in my series of
Sourdough Shakespeare
blog posts!
Sometimes the best place to escape the realities of our time is a favorite old book whose characters and questions will continue to outlive us all. Or in this case an old play. Specifically one of the most famous plays in the English language, and even more particularly, its most well-known speech.
Emmy-award winning documentary producer Andrew Smith created the To Be Or Not To Be Podcast in the depths of the coronavirus lockdown to raise awareness for actors and theaters at this time of crisis. Ten episodes in, he has also created a magnificent resource for students, fans, and teachers of Shakespeare.
Since September 2020, Smith has lent his richly resonant voice and expert production values to this labor of love with a decidedly microscopic focus. Rather than imposing constricting limitations, however, Smith’s clever conceit of fixing his lens on the six-word phrase that is perhaps the most universally known line of Shakespeare provides a common starting point that telescopes listeners into a whole new world each episode.
Smith has already amassed a collection of extraordinary discussions that take us alternately deep into the human psyche, back to theater of Shakespeare’s time, into the lives and community activities of theater company members in the UK and America, into maximum security prisons, to conversations with renowned scholars, different ways “To be or not to be” has been used in politics around the world, and most recently into the history of female Hamlets and ways in which “To be or not to be” became a powerful slogan for equality and justice.
The elasticity of this podcast’s framing device is itself a microcosm for Shakespeare’s works. Scholars, writers, and theater artists for generations have marveled at how Shakespeare’s plays and lines are perennially providing more questions than answers, more ways for us to find ourselves through the characters, more jumping off points than destinations.
This space for interpretation and appropriation may be best described by the term Emma Smith, of Oxford University, has given us in her 2020 book This is Shakespeare: “gappiness.” In the To Be or Not To Be Podcast, Andrew Smith finds nooks and crannies in the speech and its history and he goes ever more granularly into these literary crevasses in a way which suggests that these six words have the ability to open up an endless hall-of-mirrors of topics to explore.
If you’re looking for incredibly well-researched and beautifully edited deep dives into the myriad of ways in which Shakespeare’s words continue to be used around the world, check out Andrew Smith’s To Be or Not To Be Podcast. You’ll find those six famous words are really just the tip of the iceberg.
#shakespearenerds #shakesepearepodcasts #startwithshakespeare #shareyourshakespeare #teachingshakespeare #tobeornottobe #hamlet #teachinghamlet #shakespeare #sourdoughshakespeare #thomasbetterton #andrewsmith
Episode 1 – Speaking the speech
Delightful first episode with wonderful firsthand reports from actors who’ve played HAMLET and how they handled the speech.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-one-speaking-the-speech/id1529922392
4 – What’s It All About?
As indicated by the title, this episode is deep and thought-provoking. I found myself rewinding over and over again to listen to the scholars and their melding of philosophy, psychology, literary criticism, and practical human experience. What a great collection of thinkers and teachers! My understanding of the play was enriched by these scholars who articulate the nuanced power of the play, and in particular the TBONTB speech, in ways that kept me saying, “Yes, yes, totally! Professor Joshua Landy’s idea that when we are at a loss for what to do next we are “tempted to sometimes take a point of view of eternity” (22:30) strikes me as an apt explanation of why we continue to be so drawn to Shakespeare.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-4-whats-it-all-about/id1529922392?i=1000496236002
Episode 7 – What We May Be
This episode welcomes psychoanalyst Jamieson Webster and philosopher Simon Critchley, authors of Stay Illusion: The Hamlet Doctrine, who discuss why Hamlet is divided against himself. “If we can truly see into the fundamental nature of existence it would be a devastating, paralyzing existence” (3:48). Their book is rooted in Friedrich Nietzsche’s theory of thought and action in The Birth of Tragedy. Since knowledge kills action, action requires the veils of illusion. Hamlet knows too much, which makes it hard to act. That explains a lot! I was also particularly fascinated by the couple’s candid discussion of how taking such a deep dive into the life and death themes of Hamlet took a great toll on their relationship; something that paralleled with my own experience of spending five years combing over the text and its existential questions.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-7-what-we-may-be/id1529922392?i=1000500045746
Episode 2 – The Time Machine
Great explanation of the use of actors’ parts and cue sheets. Wonderful insight on what performing in Shakspeare’s time must have looked like.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-two-the-time-machine/id1529922392?i=1000491504732
Episode 5 – Verse Doctors
This episode gives insight to how the hidden rhythms in the speech have left clues behind for actors. It also shows in great detail how much work goes into “speak(ing) the speech” we audience members end up hearing on stage.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-5-the-verse-doctors/id1529922392?i=1000498227039
Episode 8 – Taking Up Arms
This fascinating discussion explores some of the many ways in which “To be or not to be” has been used as a rallying call for politicians and protestors. The episode opens with stirring recordings of Malcolm X speaking at Oxford University, as he quotes “To be or not to be,” at the culmination of his speech, aligning his own political beliefs with those put forth in Hamlet, and and expressing his desire to take up arms with anyone who wants “change this miserable condition that exists on this earth.” From Hitler, to China, to Arab Spring, this is the kind of deep research that Smith treats us to, and that makes each of these episodes beg for a book or dissertation to be written on its topic.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-8-taking-up-arms/id1529922392?i=1000503100571
Episode 9 – A Thousand Natural Shocks – The EGO Performance Company
Here we get to meet a delightful group of players who all have physical disabilities or learning differences. During lockdown they’ve been performing the TBONTB speech over Zoom, using it to explore the difficulties, the challenges and the hopes they have in their own lives. Performing Shakespeare has become part of their fight for acceptance in society. It’s about changing people’s perception of people with disabilities. And getting to know some fun and inspiring performers!
Episode 3 – Black Lives Matter
This episode takes us behind the scenes of the Black Lives Matter-themed Public Theater production of Hamlet, directed by Patricia McGregor, who points out that “Shakespeare was meant to be consumed by the masses, not just the elite.” The production toured maximum security prisons, homeless shelters and women’s refuges and in community centers throughout New York City. Chukwudi Iwuji, who played Hamlet, says the play speaks to “When the people that are supposed to protect you fail, where does that leave you?” making it an apt lens through which to examine issues of systemic racism.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-3-black-lives-matter/id1529922392
Episode 6 – The Strange History of a Radical Speech (Part 1)
This episode is a little longer than most, which it needs be in order to contain the comprehensive treatment of the history of the speech, some of the different actors who have played the role over centuries, and what it was like to attend theater back in the centuries between Shakespeare’s time and today. I learned about Thomas Betterton, considered the greatest actor of Hamlet between Richard Burbage and David Garrick, and how 17th century diarist Samuel Pepys so loved the play that he has a friend create a musical version of Hamlet. This is what I mean by a deep dive!
Episode 10 – The Strange History of a Radical Speech (Part 2)
This most recent episode is yet another example of how microscoping into a particular topic can expand our sense of the seemingly limitless scope of not only Shakespeare, not only Hamlet, but of this most well-known speech as well. Here we learn the surprising history of over 200 females who have played the role, and the ways in which TBONTB has been used as a cri de coeur in the fight for women’s representation and equality.