Taking you inside Shakespeare’s plays on the radio – how they sound and how they change and evolve – Andrea Smith provides an innovative history of Shakespearean performance. Based on meticulous new research using documentary evidence and archive audio recordings, Smith explores what it means to present Shakespeare as audio and how this can help us to gain a greater understanding of the plays themselves and the art of performing them. The BBC’s remit to ‘inform, educate and entertain’ has led to assumptions that these plays were presented as scholarly works rather than showbiz. Wrong! They feature all the careful crafting of any other production of Shakespeare’s work. This book puts these audio productions on a par with other forms of Shakespearean performance and offers detailed case studies to further the readers’ understanding of Shakespeare’s texts on air.
Brings together Shakespearean performance, audio drama studies and media history to offer the first detailed examination of Shakespeare productions on British radio.
Acknowledgements
Introduction: What is radio Shakespeare and how does it work?
1. First steps and early success: 1923-45
2. Post-war boom: 1946-66
3. Radio reorganised and reimagined: 1967-87
4. Man of the millennium: 1988-2001
5. Digital developments and diversity: 2002-23
Conclusion: Radio Shakespeare is truly immersive
Glossary of broadcasting terms
Selected Bibliography
Index
Andrea Smith is Lecturer in English and Creative Writing at the University of Suffolk. Her research focuses on audio interpretations of early modern plays, listening to how they transform something for the stage into something for the ear. She brings her research into her teaching and outreach work, using audio clips to help people understand Shakespeare's texts and inspire their own creative work. Her research has been published in Shakespeare Survey, Shakespeare, Women's History Today and Radio Journal. She has also discussed her research in the short documentary series, The Beeb and the Bard on BBC Radio 3, as well as participating in the network's discussion programme, Free Thinking.
