Theatrical Adaptations of Shakespeare in Canada: A Working Bibliography

Abstract

This bibliography represents a first attempt to document, in as comprehensive a manner as possible, theatrical adaptations of Shakespeare’s works in Canada. The list, far from complete and very much still in progress, has been produced by the Canadian Adaptations of Shakespeare project housed at the University of Guelph, directed by myself and funded by a Premier’s Research Excellence Award (PREA) through the Ontario Ministry of Energy, Science and Technology. The award has permitted the project to establish itself as a significant archival research project in Canadian theatre and performance history. The bibliography began in 1998 as part of the background research for Adaptations of Shakespeare: A Critical Anthology of Plays From the Seventeenth Century to the Present (Routledge, 2000) co-edited by myself and Mark Fortier. As a result of work done on that project it became apparent that Shakespearean adaptation in a variety of national sites was not only a vastly understudied phenomenon but also a useful index of the myriad ways in which theatrical culture comments on issues of national identity formation. The latter topic is of especial importance to spaces in which colonial incursions (often heavily reliant on the transference of values imported by settler culture) have played an important role both in constructing a sense, however illusory, of coherent national identity and in critiquing the ways in which national identity formation (almost) always occurs at the expense of sustaining significant cultural differences.