Eleven years ago, I wrote to Tom Stoppard to ask about this coup de théâtre from 1949. It took me down an unexpected rabbit hole - in memory of Stoppard, here's what I found.

RIP Tom Stoppard. Arcadia's the best play in English since Beckett. Two intertwined will-they-won't-they-did-they? plots, to make space for five characters as smart and witty as TS to do their thing. Wilde-tier stuff, but with heart.

Can't show that with a quote, so here's a bit that's just funny.

Since we are once again dealing with "the only silent era comedians of note were men" I feel I need to stand up for the ladies.

Marion Davies!

Strong @schoolofnight.bsky.social vibe here in this LRB article on medieval poetic manuscripts. Coincidence?

Who knows what the Liverpool muses will bring me to improvise with this Saturday? Should I expect something tragical-comical-iambical-romantical? To be honest, probably just ridicucal-iambic. That's the muses for you at that time of night ...

RIP Tony Harrison. Here's the Big H, a bonkers BBC 1984 school nativity play. The patter here from the teachers transformed into Herod is positively Doddyesque in its relentlessness. I used to try to do the bit beginning @ 35.00 in one breath when lecturing year 1 on poetry. youtu.be/v7l4MZY4jFU?...

An echo of my old trade from 2024: I'm on this pod with two wonderful scholars discussing politics in 16c poetry. At the end I read out a 1594 version of the founding moment of the English radical tradition: John Ball's 1381 sermon asking 'When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?'.

In what can only be described as sheer programming genius, my one-man impro Shakespeare show is on in Liverpool @6pm the same night as Eddie Izzard does his one-man Hamlet @ 7.30. It's *technically* possible to see both.

C'mon, guys. You've got to laugh.

store.makeitwrite.org/product/shak...

Long before you-know-who, stories of Richard II's reign filled the air. @beyondshakes.bsky.social have just dropped some from the 16C poem The Mirror For Magistrates, recorded live in 2024. I'm on from about 19.40, complaining from beyond the grave as Richard's murdered uncle, Thomas of Woodstock.

A clip from the last of my work in progress gigs for Shakespeare On The Spot, at the British Shakespeare Association meeting in June. This ambush game gets audience suggestions for a thing. Later in the show it appears in a simile/metaphor used by Lear's daughters to praise him.

A great audience for Shakespeare on the Spot last Saturday at the King's Arms, Salford. Pic on right is the 'Is this an [object from the audience] I see before me' game.

Next stop, a return to my old trade at the end of the month - performing at the @bsashakespeare.bsky.social conference in York.

Ten new @markravenhill.bsky.social plays from 1611 Commedia dell' Arte scenarios! I have a ticket for the lot and am performing in the penultimate one, 6pm Saturday (as grumpy old git Pantalone). Come and have a laugh - profits to an anti-VAWG charity.

Tix from wiltons.org.uk/whats-on/run...

Ian did this for me and my siblings a few years ago, and I'll always be grateful. It makes a difference.

Angelic hosts in focus at St. Nicholas, King's Lynn.