Is Shakespeare’s work still relevant today? Yes (obviously), especially as a framework to examine hot-button themes such as race, class, gender and bias.
That’s the premise of a smart new local podcast, Shakespeare Decoded, a pandemic pivot from the nearly 50-year-old company Shakespeare Dallas. The series, which debuted last week, has an interesting format that showcases a different host and three expert panelists each episode.
The debut installment tackles religious and cultural identity in The Merchant of Venice, with a bishop, a professor and a rabbi. Episode 2 focuses on Much Ado About Nothing and the sexual distrust of women. (Some things haven’t changed much since the Elizabethan era.) The experts on that panel include Dallas Morning News arts contributor and journalism professor Lauren Smart.
According to Shakespeare Dallas’ Jenni Stewart, their goal is “to confront the societal pressures affecting Shakespeare’s characters and, through that process, examine what it means to be human in our world today.”
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