Antipodal Shakespeare by Gordon McMullan et al.

Abstract

Reviewed by: Antipodal Shakespeare by Gordon McMullan et al. Angela Eward-Mangione Antipodal Shakespeare. By Gordon McMullan and Philip Mead with Ailsa Grant Ferguson, Kate Flaherty, and Mark Houlahan. London: Bloomsbury, 2017. Pp. xiii + 309. $102 (hardback), $91.80 (Ebook). In Antipodal Shakespeare, lead authors Gordon McMullan and Philip Mead analyze the Shakespeare Tercentenary and simultaneously reconsider the origins of "Global Shakespeare." Although "Global Shakespeare" has been viewed typically as a niche area of Shakespearean studies that developed alongside not only postcolonial criticism but also an increasing focus on globalization, the authors assert that the 1916 Tercentenary Celebrations refine scholars' understanding of the phenomenon of "Global Shakespeare." To support their claim, the authors propose "Antipodal Reading" as a methodology. In their view, Antipodal Reading analyzes activities, events, or performances that take place at the same time yet in locations that differ culturally and politically (11). According to McMullan and Mead, the term "antipodal" does not resolve tensions inherent in the local-global binary, but the method highlights the effects of numerous binaries that have been affected by history, particularly imperial history. The authors apply this methodology to their analysis of Shakespearean Tercentenary celebrations in Britain, Australia, and New Zealand. McMullan's chapter, "Forgetting Israel Gollancz: The Shakespeare Tercentenary, the National Theatre and the effects of commemoration," applies antipodal reading to analyze Israel Gollancz's leading role in the Shakespeare Tercentenary celebrations in Britain, demonstrating how Gollancz's unique approach to commemoration led to not only the origins of the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and Shakespeare's Globe but also to the emergence of a Global Shakespeare. For example, as planning for the Tercentenary began in 1903, Gollancz proposed an international design competition to make the commemoration a distinctively international movement (36). The proposal for this international competition engaged locations affected by the imperial history of which Shakespeare is a substantial part, thereby manifesting a Global Shakespeare that was integral to Tercentenary celebrations. [End Page 371] However, this Global Shakespeare was opposed by advocates of a living monument to Shakespeare, such as a national theatre, resulting in the merger of the Shakespeare Memorial Committee and the movement for a National Theatre (37). The Shakespeare Memorial National Theatre (SMNT) committee nonetheless remained involved in many Tercentenary events, including one for which Gollancz gave King George V and Queen Mary the Book of Homage to Shakespeare. This book celebrated Shakespeare in numerous countries, including Australia and New Zealand, and served as a performative memorial that reflects the global nature of Gollancz's outlook (48). This chapter also examines Gollancz's second contribution to the Tercentenary, the Shakespeare Hut, which further enabled Shakespearean memorialization to occur during the War. Finally, the chapter analyzes how rent money from the Indian Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) for the Shakespeare Hut funded the New (Royal) Shakespeare Company (55), and how Gollancz's involvement in the SMNT influenced Shakespeare's Globe. Most importantly, the chapter observes that the antipodal nature of the National Theatre project has been forgotten. However, the chapter's discussion of Gollancz's vision of an international statue design contest as well as his creation of the Book of Homage offers the most effective examples of the author's view of a global Shakespeare that emerged during Tercentenary celebrations in Britain. Chapter two, "Shakespeare, memory, and the city: The Tercentenary in Sydney and its afterlife," by Philip Mead, explores how ramifications of cultural exchange between Britain and Australia affected the Tercentenary in Australia. Applying antipodal reading, the chapter points out that while the consensus in London was primarily for a national theatre, Sydney's commemorative impulse was to keep Shakespeare's memory alive (69). Plans to commemorate the Tercentenary in Australia began in the early years of the twentieth century, particularly with the establishment of the New South Wales (NSW) Shakespearean Society, over which Henry Gullett presided in 1909 (65). The chapter's analysis of Gullett's vision to memorialize Shakespeare, the man, as the King of Englishness (72) proves to be particularly successful in developing the book's focus on these nascent forms of a Global Shakespeare. As the chapter notes, Gullett contacted expatriate Australian sculptor Sir Bertram Mackennal with a...