Spoilers: Gammer Gurton's Needle (Act 5)

Welcome to this spoilery introduction to the play Gammer Gurton's Needle by Mr S. We present a run down of the action, with commentary and clips, followed by a plain text recording of material in the edit for the final full cast audio adaptation (coming soon!)

It's Act Five (feel free to go back to the beginning if you want to work chronologically), in which the injured Doctor Rat brings in the LAW, i.e. Baily, whose presence allows all Diccon's lies to come tumbling out.
The plain text version is performed by Heydn McCabe as Diccon the Bedlam, Geir Madland as Hodge, Pamela Flanagan as Dame Chat, Rob Myson as Doctor Rat and Sarah Golding as Gammer Gurton. The host is Robert Crighton, who is filling in the part of Baily for this episode - it will be different in the final cut.

BE WARNED - If you just want to listen to the play as a play, don't listen to the spoilers episodes. Come back later, or don't listen. However, if you find early drama hard to follow, then you will get a good grounding in the action here - especially as we may make changes or cuts for our final version! The plain text version is rough in hew, it will change and we produce it in part to hunt out errors.

You can follow the text online - though some texts are better than others. Good editions of the play can also be found - not always in print, but still in circulation - and are worth the hunt.

Online versions are various and with many variations in text (dialect does that to a play) - but here's one that can be found at project Gutenberg. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/37503/37503-h/37503-h.htm

Other online versions can and should be searched for.

Editions: There are lots out there, these are the three volumes that pop up a lot. Five Pre-Shakespearean Comedies - Oxford (1934), Four Tudor Comedies - Penguin (1984), Gammer Gurton's Needle - New Mermaids (2nd Edition 2007)

Support the podcast by going to www.patreon.com/beyondshakespeare and pledge something – or by leaving a review on itunes or whichever podcasting service you use. Or follow us on Twitter @BeyondShakes or check out our website at www.beyondshakespeare.org