The Play's the Thing - Podcast Rankings and reviews

As a former English teacher, I wish I’d known about this podcast before!! Still, I LOVE listening to this podcast - just for fun! The camaraderie, banter, insight, and deep questions of all members of the team are delightful. They each bring a different angle of expertise, from performance to teaching the play to soul-searching and reading well. If you enjoy Shakespeare, this podcast is a no-brainer. :) But even if the Bard isn’t your thing, if you like history, literature, and/or theatre, I think you’ll still enjoy listening in.

This podcast is absolutely the best analysis of Shakespeare’s plays that you will find anywhere. The hosts are incredibly knowledgeable. I have been teaching high school English for many years, and I always listen to “The Play’s the Thing” before teaching a Shakespearean play. It’s so refreshing to find a classical approach to literature nowadays. Thank you!!

I have been enjoying your Hamlet series. As a literature teacher who knows every line of the full play, there are moments when I find your interpretations challenging me to think of beloved scenes in new ways. At others, I find myself talking back to where my ear pods shut off. Your discussion of Fortinbras in act 4 was one such place. Fortinbras is Hamlet’s foil, which Hamlet makes clear in the battlefield scene. Our protagonist envies Fortinbras. He is resolute, strong of mind and conviction—avenging his father while Hamlet has prevaricated. This is essential to understanding the play. In the end, Fortinbras claims Denmark while Hamlet and Laertes lie dead due to their father’s and stepfather’s treachery. Yet, do we herald Fortinbras’s victory? No. Why? Because despite his own self-doubt—rather, because of it—Hamlet has shown us what it is to be fully human. He was right to seek truth rather than just exact revenge. He was noble and thoughtful in a world that valued raw power and platitudes over understanding (as we see with Polonius). EVERY character is essential in this play. In the end, we should weep for Hamlet and that we live in such a world. Fortinbras’s arrival does re-establish order—the very order that led to Hamlet’s death. The ultimate tragedy—the continuation of a world out of tune where the noble Hamlet lies dead after trying to make sense of it.

As a teenager who’s always struggled with not reading, but actually understanding and fully appreciating Shakespeare this podcast has been so helpful. I love how I leave every episode with questions and ideas.