Shakespeare Company Research Articles

Review of William Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost (Directed by Emily Burns for the Royal Shakespeare Company) at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 15 May 2024

Review of William Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost (Directed by Emily Burns for the Royal Shakespeare Company) at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 15 May 2024

Translating and performing China for the English-speaking stage: Royal Shakespeare Company’s re-staging of The Injustice to Dou E

Contemporary China is increasingly open in its interaction with the global cultural community, generating one of the most prestigious projects—the Royal Shakespeare Company’s “Chinese Classics Translation Projects” (2015–2023). This article examines this project’s first production Snow in Midsummer, a performance based on a new translation of the Chinese classic Dou E Yuan (窦娥冤, The Injustice to Dou E That Moved Heaven and Earth). Through exploring the multiple agents involved in the RSC’s re-staging of the play, this article traces the processes of translation and performance characterised by an oft-hidden collaborative agency. It uncovers the collaborative agency at work and argues that the agency in this theatre production aims to set the conditions to make the original Chinese classic new, so as to enable its rejuvenation and transformation. Key finding of this article is that the collaborative agency of the translator, playwright, director, stage designer, and actors/actresses in re-staging has enlivened the 13th-century Chinese classic with enriched narratives and produced a performance that is nuanced and relevant to the contemporary world. This article makes a case for the paradigmatic shift from a product-based approach to theatre translation to a process-based one. It opens new avenues to future research into the question of complexity of collaborative agency in restaging the foreign classic to the contemporary English-speaking audiences for both areas of theatre translation for performance and transnational theatre production.

As You Like It by Chesapeake Shakespeare Company (review)

As You Like It by Chesapeake Shakespeare Company (review)

Cymbeline by Royal Shakespeare Company at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre (review)

Cymbeline by Royal Shakespeare Company at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre (review)

Hamnet by Royal Shakespeare Company and Neal Street Productions, in association with Hera Pictures at the Garrick Theatre (review)

Hamnet by Royal Shakespeare Company and Neal Street Productions, in association with Hera Pictures at the Garrick Theatre (review)

Dreaming of new musical interaction – the interactive music in the project Dream

ABSTRACT Dream was an online live performance in early 2021 and was a collaboration between several partners, among them Royal Shakespeare Company, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Marshmallow Laser Feast, Manchester International Festival and EPIC Games. The stated goal of Dream was to explore new ways of interacting with audiences while bridging the disciplines of theatre, music, video games and other forms of digital media. The musical goals were to enable a high level of musical interactivity while at the same time coupling that with the use of high-quality recorded orchestral music. This article is not a study of the Dream project as a whole, but focuses on the interactive music that was generated in realtime by the actors and powered by Reactional Music. Apart from briefly discussing the technology itself, this article will describe and analyse some of the working processes involved in composing interactive music, as well as discuss some of the future implications of the use of technology from the video game industry in new areas such as live performances and audience interaction. The aim of this is to see if it’s possible to envision what kind of new artistic output that can come from these new technological environments.

Review of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth (Directed by Wils Wilson for the Royal Shakespeare Company) at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 20 September 2023

Review of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth (Directed by Wils Wilson for the Royal Shakespeare Company) at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 20 September 2023

Exhibiting the Nation: Identity and (Post)colonial Aesthetics in Hannah Khalil’s A Museum in Baghdad

Hannah Khalil’s play A Museum in Baghdad and its 2019 staging by the Royal Shakespeare Company focus on the complex relationship between museum and theatre as memory institutions. This relationship was enhanced by metatheatrical connections between the performance of the museum on stage, the accompanying displays in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre lobby and gift shop, and the spectators who entered the Swan Theatre auditorium. The exploration of the intricate exchange between performance, space, and audience reveals the paramount importance of two specific issues: the politics of display and the performative aspect of nation-making within national institutions. Using postcolonial and decolonial frameworks, my analysis probes the ways in which theatre may offer a better understanding of dramaturgies of display in museums through the exposure and critique of the complex cultural and social challenges that emerge from the interdependence between national cultural institutions and official narratives of belonging (such as the lack of representation of marginalized communities, homogenized views of cultural development, or targeted financial support for institutions that adhere to state narratives). Khalil’s theatrical depiction of the political intricacies of curatorial decision-making allows for a sobering examination of both the role of museums in the creation of national narratives of identity and the responsibility of the theatre to uncover the cultural mechanisms used to enforce such narratives.

Review of Shakespeare’s Cymbeline (Directed by Gregory Doran for the Royal Shakespeare Company) at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 23 May 2023

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Harold Pinter: Stages, Networks, Collaborations

Harold Pinter: Stages, Networks, Collaborations

Dr Jekyll and/or Mr Hyde: The two versions of David Edgar’s stage adaptation

In 1991, the Royal Shakespeare Company staged David Edgar’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1885 novella, directed by Peter Wood, to a generally negative critical and commercial response. Five years later, the Birmingham Repertory Theatre produced Edgar’s revised version of the play, using the shorter title Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, to much more positive reviews, often from the same people. The striking thing about this radically different response is that, apart from a single element, the two scripts are very similar. They can therefore serve almost as a real-life scientific experiment, demonstrating the difference that a single change will make. This article will consider the various choices that an adaptor may make with this story and look at what the different responses to the two versions can tell us about the nature of this story, and possibly about horror and fantasy in general.

Henry VI: Rebellion; Henry VI: The Wars of the Roses; Richard III Presented by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon (review)

Henry VI: Rebellion; Henry VI: The Wars of the Roses; Richard III Presented by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon (review)

Macbeth Presented by Seattle Shakespeare Company at Center Theatre, Seattle, WA (review)

Macbeth Presented by Seattle Shakespeare Company at Center Theatre, Seattle, WA (review)

In the Thick of the Woods: Contemporary Obscurity in the RSC’s 2021 Virtual Dream

Abstract: This essay discusses the Royal Shakespeare Company’s virtual Dream that was streamed in March 2021, reaching over 53,000 people from more than seventy countries. Led by publicity to expect a dazzling virtual spectacle, many spectators found the experience underwhelming, feeling baffled by a Puck avatar who groped around an artificial looking nighttime wood, whipped about by a storm. This article suggests that, instead of dismissing this project too easily, it can be read as a truly contemporary rendering of the play in Giorgio Agamben’s sense. Shakespeare becomes contemporary through a dramatic exploration of obscurity, showing how characters are compelled to act, to make decisions, and to abandon themselves to a potentially dangerous environment that they do not fully understand or control. Like Shakespeare’s mechanicals, tripped up in their rehearsal process by the strange workings in the woods near Athens, the RSC’s Dream cast were groping towards an expression of their present predicament, sending out a flickering message from their COVID-19 lockdown. The production captured contemporary obscurity and anxiety caused by the challenges of climate change, the pandemic, and digital transformation.

New Work In and Beyond Repertory at the Royal Shakespeare Company and Shakespeare’s Globe

This article explores the role of new writing within two contemporary Shakespearean institutions, the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and Shakespeare’s Globe. Focusing on the 2010 premieres and subsequent touring productions of David Greig’s Dunsinane for the RSC and Howard Brenton’s Anne Boleyn at the Globe, this article reflects on how these plays derive distinctive meanings from their repertory connection to Shakespeare. At the same time, I argue that by reconceiving accepted historical narratives and figures, these plays also challenge causal links between past and present, including the supposed lineage between Shakespeare and contemporary writers that both institutions espouse.

Henry V

Reviewed by: Henry V Justin B. Hopkins Henry V Presented by Chesapeake Shakespeare Company in Baltimore, MD. 22 April–15 May 2022. Directed by Alec Wild. Set design by Dan O’Brien. Lighting design by Minjoo Kim. Costume design by Kristina Lambdin. Music composed by Caleb Stine. With Samuel Adams (Henry), Ian Charles (Bedford/Scroop/Nym/Williams), Jonas Connors-Grey (Archbishop of Canterbury/Cambridge/Bardolph/King of France), Michael Crowley (Henry IV/Fluellen/Constable), Terrance Fleming (Westmorland/Dauphin), Oz Heiligman (Boy), DeJeanette Horne (Falstaff/Gower/Governor of Harfleur), Bess Kaye (Gloucester/Orleans), Lesley Malin (Chorus), Morgan Pavey (Bishop of Ely/Katherine), Dawn Thomas Reidy (Exeter), Sam Richie (Pistol), Teresa Spencer (Nell Quickly), and Ryan Tumulty (Montjoy/Grey/Bates/Burgundy). During a preshow talk before the closing performance of Henry V, its director, Alec Wild, remarked on the challenge of interpreting the play in light of current world events, especially those taking place in Eastern Europe. Henry V is a play about an invasion with an origin of questionable legality, as well as outright illegal and immoral actions on both sides. Wild acknowledged that during rehearsals the company had felt the need to address the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But how? Wild pointed out that Henry obviously doesn’t correspond comfortably to Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, Wild said, it would also be inappropriate to show Henry wholly as a hero—as, say, some thinly veiled version of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. [End Page 552] Click for larger view View full resolution Samuel Adams as King Henry V and the Company in Henry V, dir. Alec Wild. Chesapeake Shakespeare Company (CSC), 2022. Photo by Kiirstn Pagan, courtesy of CSC. Instead, the production avoided direct comparisons with any recognizable historical figure or situation, past or present. Rather, an open-ended approach to interpreting the text was chosen, which, Wild claimed, questioned the actual role of heroism in conflict. Wild asked that question explicitly in his Director’s Note for the production program: “how badly do we want a hero, and what are we willing to put up with in order to keep our hero-worship intact?” This open-endedness was also reflected, implicitly, in the simplicity of the production design. Dan O’Brien’s set was a collection of blocks on an otherwise bare thrust stage, which were rearranged into scenery as necessary. Kristina Lambdin costumed the cast in contemporary, casual clothes (T-shirts and jeans or slacks), with occasional accents (crowns, capes, baldrics, etc.). This spare world balanced between the archaic and the modern seemed to invite the audience perception of Henry to form without the association or imposition of specific place or period. Maybe more than visual design, the decision about how to edit a performance text can drastically affect a company’s approach to and an audience’s reception of a production. Wild mentioned during the preshow talk that he felt it was important not to cut any part of the play-text that [End Page 553] presents Henry either more or less sympathetically. Therefore, there would be no letting Henry off the hook for his appalling, criminal, and repeated orders to kill the French prisoners of war, or for his endorsement of Bardolph’s hanging—a legal execution, but no less upsetting. Nor did Wild soften Henry’s rhetoric at the siege of Harfleur—the King’s promises to murder and rape were fully and ferociously present, with Henry standing high on a stack of blocks, pointing at and making eye contact with audience members on each side of the thrust stage, as if to include, or to implicate us in the horrific violence he threatened. Not only was not much text cut, but Wild also added several scenes from Henry IV, as he indicated during the preshow talk, to help situate any audiences unfamiliar with the back story. As the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Ely conversed in act one, scene one, they paused their exposition at key moments to allow for staged flashbacks. “The courses of his youth promised it not” (1.1.24) prompted a recreation of Falstaff and Prince Hal’s battle of witty insults in Cheapside Tavern, and “The breath no...

The Winter’s Tale

Reviewed by: The Winter’s Tale Noel Sloboda The Winter’s Tale Presented by the Harrisburg Shakespeare Company at Reservoir Park, Harrisburg, PA. 3–18 June 2022. Directed by Clark Nicholson. Costume design by Jennifer Kilander. Movement by Kim Greenawalt. Scenic design by Andrew Nyberg. With Christopher Ellis (Camillo), Aaron Bomar/Philip Wheeler (Antigonus), Michael James Kacey/Clark Nicholson (Polixenes), F. L. Henley, Jr. (Leontes), Erika Eberly (Hermione), Zahar Georgievskiy (Mamillius), Jenni Chavis (Paulina), Jeff Wasileski (Shepherd), Josh Miccio (Clown), Joel Colvin (Autolycus), Jimmy Kohlmann (Florizel), Sydney Crutcher (Perdita), and others. From sirens to fireworks, from locusts to rain showers, unexpected challenges can seriously impact outdoor theater. This is something members of the Harrisburg Shakespeare Company know well after having put on twenty-eight previous productions at Reservoir Park. However, the primary challenges faced by the troupe on the evening I saw its latest version of The Winter’s Tale can happen both indoors and outdoors, and such challenges are far more likely to crop up during the era of COVID-19 than in years past. A preshow announcement stated that two regular cast members were unavailable due to illness. The role of Antigonus was to be [End Page 560] performed by stand-in Philip Wheeler (a regular in many Gamut productions), while the role of Polixenes was to be performed by the show’s director, Clark Nicholson. Wheeler was off book, with perfect blocking, and he inhabited the part of the Sicilian counselor as comfortably as if he had been rehearsing it for months. As the king of Bohemia, Nicholson needed to refer to a script—understandably, perhaps, since his attention had lately been occupied by coordinating everything else. Yet this minor distraction was easy to overlook given Nicholson’s confident delivery and contagious energy. Indeed, he even took part in a raucous dance that was part of a Bohemian sheep-shearing festival, kicking up his feet in a country jig while clutching a script to his breast. The rest of the cast came forward with comparable spirit and commitment, though some performers had better results than others. The first half of the show revolved around Leontes (F. L. Henley, Jr.), whose irrational wrath propelled the action forward. As the Sicilian king visited misery upon courtiers, confidantes, and family members, Henley presented Leontes as physically unwell. He suffered from a fever that made him wheeze, sweat, and mop his brow with a handkerchief, perhaps to suggest a physiological explanation for the king’s delusions about being cuckolded. It got so bad for Leontes that at one point he vomited and collapsed, remaining off his feet for several minutes. As the king’s illness worsened and his visions of infidelity grew more intense, his costume came undone: the monarch had lost his jacket and wore his shirt untucked by the time Hermione was to be judged by the oracle from Delphi. In another nice touch related to the appearance of Leontes, the “sword” he asked Antigonus to swear by (2.3.166) and jabbed in the air to punctuate rants was just a dagger. In fact, it looked very much like the dagger borne by his son Mamillius, played by a fourth grader (Zahar Georgievskiy). By implication, the monarch had the maturity level of a child and was far less in command than he believed, even if his delusions would have far-reaching consequences. Henley was not quite as successful in conveying nuance as ire. His tirades started at an extremely high pitch, infused with venom teetering on madness from the opening scenes. This gave him little room in which to maneuver or to develop his character. He was more successful in texturing the king in the second half of the play, when he conveyed a full range of emotions. After losing his son and wife, Leontes was subdued, replacing his sword (dagger) with a cane, diminished but now healthy, the fever burned out of him. Leontes was also plainly ashamed of what he had done, often hanging his head and keeping his voice low, though [End Page 561] he regained some animation at the recovery of his daughter and then his wife. For her part, Erika Eberly as Hermione...

The Prisoner: A missing link in England’s history of electronic music

This article documents the circumstances surrounding the composition of the soundtrack to the theatrical production of Bridget Boland’s The Prisoner in 1954. Roberto Gerhard’s soundtrack to The Prisoner is likely the first piece to utilise ensemble and magnetic tape, and as such potentially the first live performance of musique concrète in England, taking place a year before Gerhard’s significantly more infamous electronic score to King Lear, produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company, and four years prior to the establishment of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. No master recording or score has been located and details relating to the soundtrack are sparse. This paper attempts to collect available documentation relating to this production, as well as provide new insights relating to potential draft materials stored in the Roberto Gerhard Tape Archive and a previously unknown connection between the production and Pierre Henry and the Groupe de Reserches de Musique Concrète.

Dream by the Royal Shakespeare Company: a dystopian experience of live performance, between avatars and virtual reality

If, by definition, the performing event could not do without the co-presence in space and time of spectators and actors (Brook 21), history has shown us how profound reflections on the possibility of shifting the fundamental axes of theater have nevertheless come about. The increasingly substantial presence of video within performances, even if filmed in real-time, is one example that has called into question the fundamental concept of hic et nunc. The creation of performances for a single spectator has altered the anthropological binomial community/ritual in addition to the "non-human" entity of the performer, from metal theater to cyborg performance (Schrum). The Royal Shakespeare Company's new production (2021) Dream will be analyzed to discuss the particular artistic experimentation that has become widespread in the Covid era. This production, which is a technological performance watched by more than 20,000 people worldwide in just three days, brings performance and gaming technology together to explore new ways for the audience, a remote spectator, to experience live theater (Aebischer 21). As live play performances and readings continually crowd virtual platforms, theater is undergoing a radical shift from stage to screen and cyberspace. However, will these new formats survive in the post-pandemic times?

Indian Servitude(s) in Imperial London: Tanika Gupta’s The Empress

Abstract Dramatic acts of retrieving marginalised stories and of rewriting imperial history from a transnational perspective have been essential for efforts at decolonising knowledge. In The Empress (2013), Tanika Gupta explores the neglected history of Indian communities and the nexus of imperial labour and mobility in late-Victorian London through interlacing the fictional story of the Bengali ayah Rani and the Indian lascar Hari; the true story of the relationship between Queen Victoria and her Indian munshi Hafiz Mohammed Abdul Karim; and the stories of Westminster’s first Indian MP, Dadabhai Naoroji, and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. By foregrounding the urban experiences of diverging Indian servant characters in the sense of a critical cosmopolitanism and by privileging a heterogeneous “history from below,” this article explores how The Empress presents a counterstory to notions of a Dickensian London “full of bonnets and white people” (Royal Shakespeare Company, “Emma Rice”) and a critical intervention in discourses relating to the ethical challenges inherent in the commemoration and teaching of the British Empire.