"Is he a Communist?" During a House Un-American Activities Committee hearing in 1938, Congressman Joe Starnes probed into the politics of a writer produced by the Federal Theatre Project. The playwright in question? Christopher Marlowe.

While Starnes's blunder became legendary, Shakespeare and his contemporaries continued to come up throughout the Red Scare years. Something about early modern poetry and plays often rang as disquietingly topical.

In her book, A Treacherous Secret Agent: How Literature Spoke Truth to Power During the Red Scare, Marjorie Garber reveals how literature has always posed a threat to authority, a power of which Shakespeare was well aware. As she puts it, "poetry makes trouble all the time."

This episode explores how Shakespeare became a magnet for suspicion during the Red Scare—and how he spoke to the moment from beyond the grave.

From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published May 5, 2026. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the executive producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Technical support was provided by Philip Bodger in Lewes, England and Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Web production was handled by Megan Fraedrich. Transcripts are edited by Leonor Fernandez. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.

Marjorie Garber is the William R. Kenan, Jr., Research Professor of English and of Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard University. She is the author of twenty books, including Shakespeare in Bloomsbury and A Treacherous Secret Agent: How Literature Spoke Truth to Power During the Red Scare. She lives in London, UK. Learn more about Marjorie Garber and her work at her website.

One small step into the wrong classroom becomes a giant leap into a new life as a Shakespearean actor. That's how Jacob Ming-Trent tells it in his remarkable one-man tour-de-force, How Shakespeare Saved My Life. As the Folger prepares for the world premiere of How Shakespeare Saved My Life this June, Ming-Trent joins us to delve deeper into his story.

A multitalented stage and screen actor, he has appeared in Broadway musicals from Gypsy to Shrek, television series like Watchmen and Ray Donovan, and films including The Forty-Year-Old Version and Friendship.

Ming-Trent is no stranger to the Folger stage, having previously portrayed Nick Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream in 2022. He workshopped an early version of How Shakespeare Saved My Life at the Folger's Reading Room Festival in 2024.

In this episode, Ming-Trent presents Shakespeare as an urban poet in the vein of Tupac and Biggie. He breaks down the inspiration behind How Shakespeare Saved My Life and how he brings his own experience to his interpretation of Shakespeare's words, rearranging and reframing them to create something uniquely personal.

A century after Shakespeare's death, his words were in danger of being forgotten. While plays like King Lear and Othello still played to packed houses across England, audiences saw only the bowdlerized versions—censored, rewritten, and stripped of anything that could be considered distasteful.

How, then, did Shakespeare's original works re-emerge? Thank the Shakespeare Ladies Club, a group of influential women who rescued his reputation(and his double entendres) from obscurity.

In their book, The Shakespeare Ladies Club: The Forgotten Women Who Saved the Bawdy Bard, Christine and Jonathan Hainsworth uncover the club's unsung contributions to Shakespeare's legacy. Thanks to the Hainsworths, Westminster Abbey has now officially recognized the Shakespeare Ladies Club for their campaign to memorialize Shakespeare in Poets' Corner. But, they reveal, the club's influence goes even deeper than that.

In this episode, Christine and Jonathan Hainsworth shine a light on this remarkable group of women and how they made Shakespeare the cultural icon he is today.

_________________________________________

From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published May 5, 2026. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the executive producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Technical support was provided by Philip Bodger in Lewes, England and Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Web production was handled by Megan Fraedrich. Transcripts are edited by Leonor Fernandez. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.

Christine and Jonathan Hainsworth have a passion for historical investigation and challenging the 'conventional wisdom' regarding famous historical subjects. The husband-and-wife team bring a wealth of life experience to the task. Christine gained insight into family dynamics, poverty and societal challenges while working for the Australian government on a program to re-connect lone parents with education and employment. Jonathan, educated in Britain and Australia has over three decades of experience as a high school teacher of Modern and Ancient History and English. He is a graduate of the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia.

Having chanced upon a book mentioning the obscure Shakespeare Ladies Club, the authors were driven to research their forgotten story. Texts, historical records and family letters, undisturbed for centuries, brought into focus a quartet of women whose intelligence, taste and tenacity rescued Shakespeare's original plays for all time.