Online Reading Festival
Celebrating History
BST’s online reading festival celebrates history plays of the English early modern stage, revealing the breadth and popularity of the history genre during Shakespeare’s era. Including works by playwrights such as Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Heywood, George Peele, and John Ford, these plays span historical events from 1199 to 1499 and live in conversation with Shakespeare’s history plays, providing source material and alternate versions of events and characters. WATCH ON YOUTUBE
Monday, May 11, 2020 at 7:30pm
The Troublesome Reign of King John
by George Peele
directed by Liam Thomas Daley
dramaturgy by Liam Thomas Daley
Between a war with France, rebellious barons at home, threats of excommunication from the Pope, and a nephew with a credible claim to the crown, King John struggles to meet the demands of kingship. Amid these numerous crises, the young squire Philip Falconbridge learns that his real father was not an obscure knight, but none other than the late King Richard the Lionheart. At a royal invitation, Philip joins John’s entourage and rises to a position of national power — just as England is collapsing into chaos. In the absence of competent leadership from the king, Philip attempts to guide the country through the turmoil as best he can, but cannot save John from assassination at the hands of a monk.
Shakespeare used The Troublesome Reign as the basis for his own The Life and Death King John — something of a cult-classic in the Shakespearean cannon. In fact, in terms of plot and structure, the two plays are more similar than any other Shakespeare play and its source. On its own however, The Troublesome Reign offers a political pot-boiler from early in the hay-day of the history play in the 1580s and 1590s, setting the tone for other plays of dynastic intrigue and military conflict that followed.
Tuesday, May 12, 2020 at 7:30pm
Edward the Second
by Christopher Marlowe
directed by Jon Jon Johnson
dramaturgy by Claire Kimball
A newly crowned Edward II overturns his late father’s orders and sends for the return of his favorite exiled courtier, Piers Gaveston. Despite the anger of his peers and the jealousy of his wife, Edward grants Gaveston new titles, as well as extraordinary influence, and refuses to relent in his affections or send Gaveston away. This defiance incites the Mortimers, along with the Earls of Lancaster and Warwick, to lead a rebellion against the crown. In the face of eventual defeat, however, Edward II must decide whether to peacefully give up his crown to Mortimer — as the Prince’s regent — or sacrifice the royal birthright of his son.
In a remarkable example of queer relationships in early modern drama, famed playwright Christopher Marlowe explores his country’s attitudes toward political corruption and homophobia. This early English history play also introduces the English and French marriage alliance which will eventually set off the Hundred Years’ War in the first half of Shakespeare’s Histories.
Monday, May 18, 2020 at 7:30pm
Edward the Third
by William Shakespeare and others
directed by Marshall B Garrett
dramaturgy by Liam Thomas Daley
King Edward falls hopelessly in love with the married Countess of Salisbury, who rebuffs his advances and convinces him instead to channel his energies into military conquest. Joined by his son, Edward the Black Prince, King Edward invades France as the Scots are invading England. Though they are hopelessly outnumbered, Edward leads his forces to victory over the French at Poitiers — even as he is beset by false reports of crushing defeats elsewhere. Only through the guidance of his wife, Queen Phillipa, does Edward finally make the right choice between mercy and further aggression towards his vanquished enemy.
In the early twenty-first century, Edward the Third gained renewed interest and appreciation from scholars and audiences alike as Shakespeare became widely accepted as one of the play’s co-authors. The play explores many of the same themes that Shakespeare would later return to in Henry the Fifth. Like Thomas of Woodstock, this play also serves as a prequel to Richard the Second, whose reign followed Edward III’s. But Edward the Third also stands out among early modern history plays in being unusually self-contained — not designed as part of a larger sequence or relying over-much on audience knowledge of history outside the play, but working as a stand-alone play in its own right.
Tuesday, May 19, 2020 at 7:30pm
Thomas of Woodstock
by Unknown
directed by Emily MacLeod
dramaturgy by Emily MacLeod
Thomas of Woodstock explores the conflict between the young Richard II and his uncles, John of Gaunt (Duke of Lancaster), Edmund of Langley (Duke of York), and Thomas of Woodstock (Duke of Gloucester). Flatterers to the king wish his uncles harm, and seek to dismiss them from the king’s council in order to manipulate Richard into doing their bidding. Thomas, as Lord Protector, has the most to lose in this conflict. Richard’s marriage to Anne of Bohemia, and his subsequent assertion of his right to rule the country himself, initiate the tragic fall of “plain” Thomas, the noble duke of Gloucester.
Thomas of Woodstock, which has also been called Richard the Second, Part 1, survives in a single manuscript copy without an author or official title and its origins are likewise mysterious. Some of the events in the play, most notably the murder of Gloucester, occur before the action of Shakespeare’s Richard the Second which makes Thomas of Woodstock in some ways a kind of prequel. It is possible that Shakespeare wrote his own treatment of Richard with Woodstock in mind, given that he begins his play with the allusion to Gloucester’s death, but we have no real certainty about when it was first written or performed.
Monday, May 25, 2020 at 7:30pm
The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth
by Unknown
directed by Kelly Elliott
dramaturgy by Liam Thomas Daley
Young Prince Henry robs his father’s royal officials on the highway, brawls in taverns, and assaults the Lord Chief Justice. Rioting with his companions, including one Sir John Oldcastle, it is not until his father’s death that Henry resolves to live up to his royal responsibilities. Stung by a taunting gift of tennis balls from the Dauphin, and convinced of his rightful claim to the French throne by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Henry invades France, joined by his old followers. Despite being hopefully outnumbered, Henry defeats the French at Agincourt and marries the French princess Katherine.
What Shakespeare covers in three of his plays (Henry the Fourth, Parts 1 & 2 and Henry the Fifth) The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth gives us in one, as we follow Prince Henry’s journey from riotous juvenile delinquent to conqueror of France. Though much shorter, Famous Victories stages events which are alluded to in Shakespeare’s later trilogy, but not actually depicted in his version — filling gaps for modern audiences which Shakespeare’s playgoers would have taken as read. As well as a major source for Shakespeare, Famous Victories was one of the first history plays to appear on the English stage, barring one or two earlier outliers — its popularity helping to solidify and shape the history play genre as a commercially successful form of mass-entertainment.
Tuesday, May 26, 2020 at 7:30pm
Edward the Fourth, Parts 1 & 2
by Thomas Heywood
directed by Claire Kimball
dramaturgy by Claire Kimball
After putting down a rebellion and receiving word of Henry VI’s death, the newly married Edward IV finds himself captivated by another married woman named Jane Shore. Afraid of angering a king, Jane agrees to join Edward in court as his mistress when he promises to bestow favor on her friends and family. Edward then invades France while Mistress Shore uses her royal influence to help acquaintances and petitioners. But when her husband ends up locked in the Tower for violating a new treaty and Edward IV becomes gravely ill, Jane finds herself caught up in the devious political intrigues of King Richard III.
Originally published under an anonymous author (but attributed to Thomas Heywood), Edward the, Fourth Part 1 and Edward the Fourth Part 2 trace historical stories of rebellion, conquest, and conspiracy while intersecting with the tragic domestic lives of Jane Shore and local residents. Combined together, these plays tell a fuller story of Edward IV’s exploits and follow everyday citizens caught up in events from The Queen’s Storm repertory of Shakespeare’s Histories.
Monday, June 1, 2020 at 7:30pm
The True Tragedy of Richard the Third
by Unknown
co-directed by Rosemary Armato & Sarah Duttlinger
dramaturgy by Emily MacLeod
performed by Fireside Shakespeare Company
The True Tragedy of Richard the Third, much like Shakespeare’s play, chronicles the rise of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who kills his way to the throne. The Duke of Buckingham aids his ambition, and many are left punished in Richard’s wake, including the former mistress of his brother Edward, Jane Shore. Richard’s villainous rise is thwarted at last by the young Earl of Richmond in the Battle of Bosworth Field.
This anonymous play was first published in 1594, which precedes the first publication of Shakespeare’s Richard the Third, but we do not know if it was performed before, after, or simultaneously with Shakespeare’s version. In the repertory of the Queen’s Men company, this Richard the Third is remarkably different from Shakespeare’s treatment of the same source material. This author stages some of the action merely reported in the more famous play (such as the killing of the young princes in the Tower) and alternately only describes action that Shakespeare stages (such as Buckingham’s rallying speech to the citizens). Whether this play served as inspiration for Shakespeare is up for debate.
** Please note time zones! **
Monday, September 7, 2020 at 2:30pm EST / 7:30pm UK-BST
Perkin Warbeck
by John Ford
directed by Alasdair Hunter
dramaturgy by Claire Kimball
Kicking off after the events of Shakespeare’s Histories, the evil deeds of Richard III continue to haunt the court of England. King Henry VII struggles to maintain his right to the English throne against pretenders who claim to be lost descendants of the House of York. The latest claimant is Perkin Warbeck, who says he is one of the missing Princes in the Tower, and he has come to take the crown with the backing of King James IV of Scotland. As he puts down a rebellion in Cornwall and enlists an alliance with Spain, Henry VII pursues Warbeck and his followers to defend the crown and rid England of any challengers, once and for all.
John Ford, famous for his tragedies ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore and The Broken Heart, crafts an enigmatic and complex look at a man working to claim his legacy and the kingdom desperate to stop him. As one of the latest examples of a ‘history’ play in the period, Ford weaves political backstabbing with a complex character portrayal to depict both action and eloquence.