LISTENER

Derek Hunter

  • 8
  • reviews
  • 52
  • helpful votes
  • 56
  • ratings

Masterpiece of a play

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 09-20-24

Yes the play has been cut by about an hour and so there’s obviously a lot lost here - reading 'Tis Pity is better - and the play definitely deserves a production available online of its full length with an even better cast and director, but still this is a very well done radio version of 'Tis Pity. The actors get their characters right, the pacing works, the director and scene slasher (writer who cut so much out) do a good job at bringing it together. This production is also better than the drastically cut BBC radio productions of Middleton and Webster’s plays as well as a lot of Shakespeare BBC radio productions in recent years. This is especially good to listen to for folks new to the author, John Ford. Highly recommend this and if you like it, read the play in its entirety, and other plays by Ford, he was absolutely brilliant.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Engaging Exploration of Nashe and his Times

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 01-29-24

This podcast mini-series is excellently well done, thoroughly researched, professionally presented, and very entertaining. It is insightful not only to Thomas Nashe but the times in which he lived. Nashe is primarily used in this series as a window into the cultural, social, economic, literary realities of the period. Highly recommend not only this series but checking out Nashe's work, as well.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Webster was a genius

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 04-13-23

Webster's The Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil have taken a long time to be fully appreciated and we are still probably not really there yet.

Starting in the 20th century, these two plays, in particular the Duchess of Malfi, have appealed not only to scholars, but theater directors, actors, especially women actors, and audiences.

The plays are vivid, brutal, beautiful, alive, morally complex, horrific, inspiring, the characters three dimensional, the vision startling modern.

Some scholars say Webster is one of the greatest dramatists in the English language, and even some prefer Webster to Shakespeare, such as the two great actresses interviewed in the Roleplay episode section to this Audible collection, Eleanor Bron and Juliet Stevenson (truly an amazing interview, must listen to! Eleanor Bron in particular is great in her understanding of Webster!).

The production here of The Duchess of Malfi is unfortunately not very good, not horrible, but not as good as it should be. The text has been cut a great deal, so that the play moves along too quickly and you don't engage with the characters and story like one should.

The modern music used doesn't work, especially when a guy starts singing a folk song about how amazing the Duchess of Malfi is, as if the audience is too stupid to figure that out themselves.

A much much better production of the play is found on YouTube, from 1972 BBC television starring Eileen Atkins as the Duchess of Malfi and other amazing cast members.

The White Devil production here though on the other hand, is truly brilliant and must be checked out.

The two together, The White Devil production and the interview with Eleanor Bron and Juliet Stevenson, make this "Audible Webster Package" very very much worth the listening to.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Donal Donnelly is THE Voice for Joyce

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 03-19-22

There simply is no one better to have read a work by James Joyce than Donal Donnelly. If you’ve never read anything (or heard such an Audible production like this) by Joyce before, this is the best place to start. More than any other writer, reading Joyce chronologically is the best path to take. Donnelly captures all the variety of expression from Joyce, his realism, characterization, humor, tenderness, harshness, irony, depth, humanity, criticism, being both detached and engaged. It’s truly a magnificent performance from beginning to end. Enjoy and explore!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

An exciting investigative adventure

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 10-29-21

Speaking as someone who has been passionate about the plays and poems of Shakespeare since my teens (30 years), and about as long equally engaged in the Shakespeare Authorship Question, this is truly a spellbinding book. I've read many books, essays, articles, watched many videos, documentaries, presentations, lectures on the SAQ, and changed my position on the various candidates over the decades, seeing the Stratfordian, Oxfordian, Marlovian cases, and others such as Neville's, Stanley's, and others, as having many good, persuasive arguments. There have been many brilliant people arguing for these candidates, Ros Barber and Peter Farey for Marlowe, Roger Stritmatter and Mark Anderson for Oxford, Brenda James and William Rubenstein for Henry Neville, Stephen Greenblatt and Anthony Burgess for the man from Stratford, John Raithel and James Greenstreet for William Stanley, and more. And yet, despite all of their arguments, it is hard to deny the strong possibility that what Dennis McCarthy has done with the brilliant help of his two collaborators, Michael Blanding (the author of this book) and June Schlueter (co-author of North's 1555 Travel Journal), just might have put forth a greater and more convincing argument than any previous Biographer of the Bard. In addition for the case that McCarthy makes for North's contribution, Blanding's writing in North by Shakespeare is absolutely spellbinding. Following two narratives that parallel each other - 1) McCarthy's journey to prove North's contribution to The Canon, including a very engaging narrative of their physical journey through Europe with McCarthy's daughter following with her documentary crew (a forthcoming doc that I am definitely looking forward to seeing), and 2) North's life and times. Blanding brilliantly goes back and forth between the two adventures of North's life in 16th century England and mainland Europe to McCarthy's journey of the last 15 years, the two narratives balancing and adding significance to each other in extremely engaging ways. As someone who has been open to changing my position when looking at new evidence and new arguments (unlike many in the debate, both Stratfordians and Anti-Stratfordians alike) and yet also continuing my deep enthusiasm in the SAQ, reading this book and listening to this Audible narration of it, I absolutely had a difficult time staying away from either, and have come away feeling that North was the true author of the Shakespeare Canon. Read the book or listen to this Audible production to find out why, along with checking out McCarthy's site on North and read the book by McCarthy and Schlueter about the 1555 Travel Journal by North. Take a look for yourself for North's case, the case for Marlowe, the case for Oxford, the case for Neville, the case for Stanley, the case for the Stratford man or anyone else, and come to your own conclusions. What is undeniable is that North has now become just as strong a candidate as any of them, if not more so. For I, after serious consideration, feel strongly that North (and unlike McCarthy, North alone, without the help of the Stratford man) was The True Bard. Enjoy and explore!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

53 people found this helpful

Greatest of all novels indeed

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 08-17-21

Don Quixote books one and two comprise the great achievement in the novel form. Being the first modern novel (with even post-modern elements to it as well), it’s first and far most a beautiful story of profound humor. But even while it pokes fun at the two main characters from beginning to end it also remains enormously sympathetic to them from beginning to end. As with the works of Shakespeare, Don Quixote explores and plays with the nuances of contradictory views, ambiguity, and double-sided truths. Nothing is as it seems, it’s a celebration of so many things, and one thing that it celebrates which often gets overlook is the celebration of Doubt, of agnosticism, not simply about the existence of God, but of everything.

This audio version is THE best one you will find, far and away, no other actor does a better job at capturing ALL the elements to the story. Listen and enjoy.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Excellent production of early Shakespeare play

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 10-29-20

While not in any shape or form one of Shakespeare's best, it is still brilliant and this is an excellent production. This could be one of Shakespeare's worst plays and yet still very enjoyable and full of human drama.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

Absolute Perfection

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 07-11-20

No one is better than Donal Donnelly at reading James Joyce. Capturing Joyce’s deep humanity along with ironic wit as well as having extreme comfort in the language, Donnelly brings every sentence, every character, every passage, every episode (except the last, which was beautifully narrated by an Irish actress who is not credited unfortunately) to exuberant life. Enjoy and explore!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!