Podcast · Arts & Books

The Play Podcast

by Douglas Schatz · English · Arts & Books

Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. In each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We discuss the play's origins, its plot, themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. Visit www.theplaypo

New episodes: Monthly
Typical length: 1 hr 3 min
Latest: 6 Oct 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

6 Oct 2026 · 56 min

The Play Podcast - 115 - The Dance of Death, by August Strindberg

Episode 115: The Dance of Death by August Strindberg Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Sir Richard Eyre Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. August Strindberg's The Dance of Death is set in a remote army base on the coast of Sweden, where an army captain and his wife are trapped together in an unhappy marriage. The captain, bitter at his lack of promotion, and his…

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Earlier episodes 29 most recent

E114 · 22 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 7 min
The Play Podcast - 114 - Love's Labour's Lost, by William Shakespeare
Episode 114: Love's Labour's Lost by William Shakespeare Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Tom Littler Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. William Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost is described on the title page in the first publication of its text in 1598 as "A Pleasant Conceited Comedie." I imagine that the epithets were intended to highlight the play's courtly…
E113 · 28 Aug 2026 · 16 min
The Play Podcast - 113A - Arcadia Footnotes
Episode 113A: Arcadia Footnotes Host: Douglas Schatz Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. T om Stoppard's dramatic masterpiece, Arcadia, is a teasing detective story, a joyous comedy, and an emotionally rich exploration of love and loss. It is also a play of ideas. These Footnotes supplement our main episode on Arcadia , with observations on subjects woven…
E113 · 24 Aug 2026 · 56 min
The Play Podcast - 113 - Arcadia, by Tom Stoppard
Episode 113: Arcadia by Tom Stoppard Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Carrie Cracknell Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. Tom Stoppard's 1993 play, Arcadia is viewed by many as his finest play, renowned for the breadth of its intellectual interrogations and its formal invention. The play is a structural masterpiece of ideas, as well as a teasing detective story,…
E112 · 27 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 11 min
The Play Podcast - 112 - Glengarry Glen Ross, by David Mamet
Episode 112: Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Mark Lawson Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. David Mamet's modern American classic, Glengarry Glen Ross , is a blistering commentary on the cut-throat reality of the American dream, and its poisonous impact on those who have bought into the myth and machismo of that dream. The…
E111 · 2 Jul 2026 · 59 min
The Play Podcast - 111 - The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, by Bertolt Brecht
Episode 111: The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht Host: Douglas Schatz Guests: Stephen Sharkey and Tom Kuhn Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. Bertolt Brecht's 'gangster spectacle', The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui is both an exuberant and funny piece of theatre, and a chillingly topical political satire. Set in the 1930s Chicago of Al Capone,…
E110 · 12 Jun 2026 · 1 hr 5 min
The Play Podcast - 110 - Our Town, by Thornton Wilder
Episode 110: Our Town by Thornton Wilder Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Howard Sherman Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. Playwright Edward Albee described Thornton Wilder's Our Town as "the greatest American play ever written." In fact Wilder's quintessential portrait of rural America in a bygone time has somehow transcended its iconic American setting to…
E109 · 15 May 2026 · 1 hr 17 min
The Play Podcast - 109 - Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare
Episode 109: Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Dr Hester Lees-Jeffries Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is arguably the most famous love story of all time. The tragic tale of their ecstatic young love has become iconic, not only in the theatre, but in the countless forms it has been…
E108 · 19 Feb 2026 · 1 hr 2 min
The Play Podcast - 108 - The Lady from the Sea, by Henrik Ibsen
Episode 108: The Lady from the Sea by Henrik Ibsen Host: Douglas Schatz Guests: Professor Kirsten Shepherd, Tzen Sam Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. When Henrik Ibsen's lyrical play The Lady from the Sea premiered in 1889, the critics were bewildered. On the surface it is a conventional drama of marital strife and the constrained social position of…
E107 · 4 Feb 2026 · 1 hr 4 min
The Play Podcast - 107 - Entertaining Mr Sloane, by Joe Orton
Episode 107: Entertaining Mr Sloane by Joe Orton Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Dr Emma Parker Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. Joe Orton's black comedy Entertaining Mr Sloane offended many established critics when it premiered in 1964. Orton's first full-length play signalled the arrival of a unique new voice, defined by its anarchic farce, camp sexuality,…
E106 · 13 Jan 2026 · 1 hr
The Play Podcast - 106 - End, by David Eldridge
Episode 106: End by David Eldridge Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: David Eldridge Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. David Eldridge's new play End is the final instalment of what David has described as a "triptych for the theatre", following Beginning in 2017, and Middle in 2022. Each of the plays in the series presents a snapshot of a couple at a particular…
E105 · 22 Dec 2025 · 1 hr 1 min
The Play Podcast - 105 - The Weir, by Conor McPherson
Episode 105: The Weir by Conor McPherson Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Conor McPherson Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. The curtain rises on a small rural pub in northwest Ireland. A few of the regulars have dropped in for company and bit of the craic. This is the simple premise of Conor McPherson's breakthrough, internationally successful play, The Weir .…
E104 · 21 Oct 2025 · 1 hr 12 min
The Play Podcast - 104 - Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare
Episode 104: Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Will Tosh Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. William Shakespeare's romantic comedy, Twelfth Night, or What You Will is one of Shakespeare's most popular comedies, renowned for its clever cross-dressing plot and festive hi-jinks, but also for its elusive tone, fluctuating between…
E103 · 2 Oct 2025 · 58 min
The Play Podcast - 103 - Titus Andronicus, by William Shakespeare
Episode 103: Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Max Webster Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. Titus Andronicus is Shakespeare's first tragedy, although in fact, scholars believe that Shakespeare did not write the whole play himself. Whatever its origins, the play is notorious for its graphic horror, which includes multiple…
E102 · 25 Sep 2025 · 46 min
The Play Podcast - 102 - Every Brilliant Thing, by Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe
Episode 102: Every Brilliant Thing by Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe Host: Douglas Schatz Guests: Duncan Macmillan Jonny Donahoe Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. Every Brilliant Thing When their mother attempts to take her own life, a seven-year old child decides to start a list; a list of "everything brilliant about the world. Everything worth living…
E101 · 10 Sep 2025 · 1 hr 17 min
The Play Podcast - 101 - The 101 Greatest Plays
Episode 101: The 101 Greatest Plays Host: Douglas Schatz Guests: Michael Billington Mark Lawson Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. In 2015 the esteemed theatre critic, Michael Billington, published The 101 Greatest Plays – From Antiquity to the Present. Michael wrote that his selection was intended as a "provocation", a "prelude to debate". Ten years on I…
E100 · 13 Aug 2025 · 1 hr 16 min
The Play Podcast - 100 - A Moon for the Misbegotten, by Eugene O'Neill
Episode 100: A Moon for the Misbegotten by Eugene O'Neill Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Beth Wynstra Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. A Moon for the Misbegotten is the last play that Eugene O'Neill wrote. It is in some way a eulogy for his brother, Jamie O'Neill, who like the character of Jim Tyrone in this play, drank himself to death. In fact, it is also…
E99 · 25 Jul 2025 · 1 hr 8 min
The Play Podcast - 099 - Till the Stars Come Down, by Beth Steel
Episode 099: Till the Stars Come Down by Beth Steel Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Beth Steel Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. It is Sylvia and Marek's wedding day. But this is not an entirely traditional English wedding, because unlike her older sisters, Sylvia's husband-to-be is not a local man; Marek is a Polish immigrant. As the festivities unfold,…
E98 · 11 Jul 2025 · 1 hr 9 min
The Play Podcast - 098 - Stereophonic, by David Adjmi
Episode 098: Stereophonic by David Adjmi Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: David Adjmi Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. It is 1976, and a fictional rock band are holed up in a studio in California attempting to record their much anticipated second album. The pressures of an inflated studio budget and raised artistic expectations expose the fault lines in the…
E97 · 25 Jun 2025 · 1 hr 1 min
The Play Podcast - 097 - Giant, by Mark Rosenblatt
Episode 097: Giant by Mark Rosenblatt Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Mark Rosenblatt Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. It is 1983, and the famous children's author Roald Dahl's life is in some turmoil. He has just divorced his wife of 30 years, and his new fiancée has just moved into the family home and has initiated disruptive renovations to the house,…
E96 · 29 May 2025 · 58 min
The Play Podcast - 096 - Dealer's Choice, by Patrick Marber
Episode 096: Dealer's Choice by Patrick Marber Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Matthew Dunster Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. A poker game in the basement of a London restaurant is the setting for six men to play out their dreams and disappointments in Patrick Marber's first play, Dealer's Choice . The play premiered at the National Theatre in 1995, and…
E95 · 12 May 2025 · 1 hr 13 min
The Play Podcast - 095 - Rhinoceros, by Eugène Ionesco
Episode 095: Rhinoceros by Eugène Ionesco Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Omar Elerian Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. A rhinoceros charges through the square of a small French village, and soon all of its inhabitants are being transformed into rhinoceros themselves. Eugène Ionesco's 1959 absurdist satire, Rhinoceros , was conceived as a metaphor for support…
E94 · 27 Mar 2025 · 1 hr 1 min
The Play Podcast - 094 - Oedipus the King, by Sophocles
Episode 094: Oedipus the King by Sophocles Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Professor Edith Hall Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. Sophocles' tragic drama of the myth of Oedipus, who unwittingly killed his father and married his mother, not only directly inspired Freud's notorious dream theory, but has itself survived as a masterpiece of theatrical invention…
E93 · 10 Mar 2025 · 1 hr 9 min
The Play Podcast - 093 - Three Sisters, by Anton Chekhov
Episode 093: Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Rory Mullarkey Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters , the third of the quartet of great plays that he wrote in the last years of his short life, is a symphonic study of the search for purpose and love. Three Sisters premiered in January 1901 at the Moscow…
E92 · 10 Feb 2025 · 1 hr 3 min
The Play Podcast - 092 - A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry
Episode 092: A Raisin in the Sun by Lorainne Hansberry Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Tinuke Craig Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. When Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun opened in New York in 1959, its author became the first African-American woman to have a play on Broadway, and this with her debut at age of 29. The play was ground-breaking for…
E91 · 28 Jan 2025 · 56 min
The Play Podcast - 091 - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, by Tennessee Williams
Episode 091: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Arifa Akbar Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. Tennessee Williams's third great play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a blistering drama of family conflict and repressed sexuality. The play opened on Broadway in 1955 to rapturous reviews, and the film that followed with Elizabeth…
E90 · 7 Jan 2025 · 57 min
The Play Podcast - 090 - The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde
Episode 090: The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Max Webster Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest is arguably the most famous romantic comedy in theatrical history. The play is renowned for its effervescent portrait of aristocratic romance, and its impossibly clever wit,…
E89 · 16 Dec 2024 · 56 min
The Play Podcast - 089 - Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett
Episode 089: Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Matthew McFrederick Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. Samuel Beckett's tragicomedy, Waiting for Godot , is a notoriously confounding work of theatre. The play is renowned for its lack of conventional plot or exposition, and for its existential predicament. Given its desolate…
E88 · 5 Dec 2024 · 1 hr 4 min
The Play Podcast - 088 - Roots, by Arnold Wesker
Episode 088: Roots by Arnold Wesker Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Diyan Zora Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. Arnold Wesker's quiet classic, Roots , is a story of doomed love, rural poverty and social protest, and most of all, of cultural aspiration and growing up and away from family, from one's roots. We recorded this episode as a sensitive revival of the…
S87 · 25 Nov 2024 · 1 hr 10 min
The Play Podcast - 087 - Look Back in Anger, by John Osborne
Episode 087: Look Back in Anger by John Osborne Host: Douglas Schatz Guests: Dan Rebellato and Atri Banerjee Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. John Osborne's Look Back in Anger is one of the landmark plays of twentieth century British theatre. It's raging protagonist, Jimmy Porter, represented a generation of disaffected youth, and its proletarian setting…

About The Play Podcast

The Play Podcast is a English arts & books podcast from Douglas Schatz. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.

Publisher: Douglas Schatz
Language: English
Category: Arts & Books
New episodes: Monthly
Typical length: 1 hr 3 min
Latest episode: 6 Oct 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1505205089
Rights: The Play Podcast 2020

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