Remembering Actors: Embodied Shakespeare and the individual in the audience

Abstract

"Remembering Actors: Embodied Shakespeare and the Individual in the Audience" is a speculative article in anticipation of RSC's production of The Tempest in 2006 starring Patrick Stewart performed at Ann Arbor, Michigan, which goes beyond discussing the 'body of text' to examine the 'body of the actor' and the meaning it brings to a production. Hartley recalls an episode of Star Trek (first broadcast in 1994), which heavily references The Tempest , and starred Stewart as Captain Picard. He urges the reader to "consider Shakespeare's use of Star Trek ", by which, he means to consider Shakespeare as a visceral and sensory experience for the audience member. In this article, Hartley identifies a multiplicity of experiences even within individual members of an audience of a particular performance. He recognises a symbiotic relationship between Stewart's Prospero and Stewart's Picard as one of these strands of meaning. However, he also recognises the relationship as having a "central irrelevance", that is, it is one that does not directly influence the play but shapes meaning nonetheless. Hartley's epilogue addresses these points retrospectively, having seen the production, RSC's Antony and Cleopatra (also starring Stewart), as well as meeting the actor off-stage.