The Shakespeare Sessions Update - A BBC Radio Drama Collection - William Shakespeare, Jude Cook Audiobook

Written by William Shakespeare, Jude Cook
Read by Full Cast
Format: M4B
Bitrate: 128 Kbps
Dramatization

Two of Shakespeare’s plays staged for BBC Radio and a play speculating about a possible love triangle behind Shakespeare’s sonnets.

HENRY IV, PART 2

The King may have won the battle of Shrewsbury, but civil war still rages across a divided country and the royal family itself is at odds: Henry is ailing and remains uncertain of his son’s unruly ways; is Harry ready to take up the responsibilities of Kingship when the time comes? Or will Falstaff, that ‘villainous abominable misleader of youth’, persuade him to the bad once more?

Shakespeare’s play provides both hilarity and heartbreak as it reflects upon ageing, the legitimacy of leadership and the burden of power.

King Henry IV - James Purefoy
Prince Harry - Luke Thompson
Sir John Falstaff - Toby Jones
Lord Chief Justice - Peter Sullivan
Justice Shallow - James Fleet
Archbishop/Feeble/Silence - Dominic Coleman
Northumberland/Fang/Westmoreland - Gerard Mcdermott
Doll Tearsheet/Lady Percy - Natalie Simpson
Mistress Quickly/Lady Northumberland - Georgie Glen
Pistol/Peto/First Groom - Lloyd Hutchinson
Bardolph/Bullcalf/Mowbray - Ewan Bailey
Colevile/Shadow - Tunji Kasim
Hastings/Mouldy - Samuel James
Warwick - Dominic Mafham
Lancaster/Davy/Messenger/Wart - Will Kirk
Poins/Second Groom/Gower - Hasan Dixon
Gloucester/Page - Billy Jenkins
Clarence/Servant - Connor Curren

Music composed by Jon Nicholls
Sound design by Keith Graham, Peter Ringrose and Ali Craig

Adapted and directed by Sally Avens

TWELFTH NIGHT

First included in the First Folio in 1623, this is a 400th anniversary production of Shakespeare’s wonderful comedy of mistaken identities and unrequited love.

When twins Viola and Sebastian are shipwrecked on the coast of Illyria, both believing each other to have drowned, they both go in search of sanctuary. Viola disguises herself as a man and finds refuge in the court of Duke Orsino. Orsino is in love with the widow Olivia but Olivia quickly falls in love with Orsino’s messenger, Viola.

Along with the drunken antics of Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek (also in love with Olivia), the sanctimonious pomposity of Olivia’s main courtier Malvolio, the clever scheming of Maria the maid and the frantic gambolling of Feste the Fool, the inevitable result is merry chaos. But will love conquer all?

Cast:
Orsino - Giles Terera
Viola - Indigo Griffiths
Olivia - Genevieve Gaunt
Malvolio - Toby Jones
Maria - Ayesha Antoine
Sebastian - David Elue
Sir Toby Belch - David Troughton
Sir Andrew Aguecheek - Jamie Treacher
Fool (Feste) - Rio Attoh Wood
Fabian/Captain - David Ajao
Valentine - Katy Owen
Curio/2nd officer - Christopher Buckley
1st Officer - James Peake
Antonio - Jos Vantyler

Produced and Directed by Clive Brill
Music by Joseph Bedell

A Brill production for BBC Radio 4

THE RIVAL by JUDE COOK

An erotically charged re-imagining of how Shakespeare came to write the sonnets. Written by Jude Cook.

In 1590, young dramatist and actor William Shakespeare is called to Titchfield House, seat of the Countess of Southampton where he’s hired by Lord Burghley to write a series of sonnets encouraging the young Earl of Southampton to marry Burghley’s granddaughter.

When the playhouses are closed due to plague in 1592, Will is forced to flee London to live at Titchfield, where he’s given a second commission to write a poem for the Countess’s son. However, Will finds himself writing secret sonnets in praise of the ‘lovely youth’.

To complicate matters, he’s also attracted to Aline, the wife of the young man’s tutor, John Florio, occasioning more poetry about a ‘Dark Lady’.

When middle-aged poet and translator George Chapman arrives, Will sees he has real competition - professionally and personally, for the Earl’s affections.

The sonnets have since become the most anthologised of Shakespeare’s words - memorised, recited and translated around the world. The play is introduced by Dr Will Tosh, Research Fellow and Lecturer at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.

William Shakespeare ….. Elliot Barnes-Worrell
Earl of Southampton ….. Freddie Fox
Aline Florio ….. Indra Ové
Lord Burghley/ Robert Greene ….. Philip Jackson
John Florio/ Landlord ….. Philip Arditti
George Chapman/ Robert Cecil ….. Ben Deery
Christopher Marlowe ….. Tim Downie
Countess of Southampton ….. Christine Kavanagh
Richard Burbage ….. Stephen Leask
Susannah Shakespeare ….. Kirsten Udall

Sound Editor Alisdair McGregor

Producer Jeremy Mortimer

A Reduced Listening Production for BBC Radio 3

First Broadcast Sun 27 Jun 2021

My recordings from BBC Sounds

You can download HENRY IV, PART 1 here,
https://radioaudiobook.org/abss/the-shakespeare-sessions-a-bbc-radio-drama-collection-william-shakespeare/