Shakespeare's Text Research Articles

Inessential Anti-Blackness: Re-Imagining a Post-Lockdown Tempest

ABSTRACT As professional and academic theatres re-opened their doors to the public for the 2021/2022 season, the first following the Covid-19 lockdowns, they decided upon plays to welcome back artists and audiences. Curiously, more than 35 American theatres chose Shakespeare’s The Tempest as their inaugural post-lockdown production. This paper examines the reasons for the continued presence of The Tempest on American stages, reading the anti-Black rhetoric inherent in the text – particularly around Caliban – against the increased national attention to racial equity and justice that resulted from the 2020 murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. I interrogate how the play came to be seen as an ‘essential’ Shakespearean text in a post-lockdown America, ultimately concluding that what is essential about The Tempest is not found within Shakespeare’s text, but in the social demand that producing the play places on theatres who wish to reframe the play as anti-racist. In other words, the conditions of the post-lockdown Tempest enable us to see the changing face of American theatre-making.

“To the elements be free”: Carnivalising the legacy of Shakespeare in Margaret Atwood’s <i>Hag-Seed</i>

In her addition to the tradition of rewritings of The Tempest, Margaret Atwood makes Shakespeare travel through time, well beyond the confines of his desert island: Hag-Seed takes place inside a penitentiary in landlocked Ontario, Canada, thus prompting us to ponder how the Shakespearean text can yield new meanings for the contemporary postcolonial world. This essay shows how, in this intertextual novel, Atwood articulates a powerful reflection on freedom and imprisonment thanks to subversive Bakhtinian devices such as carnivalisation and dialogism. Indeed, the inmates of Fletcher Correctional, through their performance of a parodic version of The Tempest, subvert the authority of the Shakespearean text through a carnivalesque reversal of established rules of behaviour. The novel thus posits the importance of theatre as an educational and therapeutic tool. Further, Atwood enlists the help of popular culture as the prisoners reinterpret the Shakespearean model through a series of provocative rap numbers. Moreover, thanks to the imaginary scenarios Hag-Seed’s inmates write about the afterlives of the Shakespearean characters, the monologic authority of The Tempest is dialogised into a cacophony of unruly voices. Playful carnivalisation paradoxically enables a deeper emotional aspect of the novel: the ability of Atwood’s Prospero figure to come to terms with the trauma of the death of his daughter. In that sense, HagSeed can be seen as a long process of atonement and mourning. From an aesthetic point of view, the carnivalised performance of The Tempest illustrates Atwood’s use of metatheatricality and magical realism, the latter being rooted in a carnivalisation of the parameters of conventional realism. All in all, Hag-Seed can be construed as a novel at the crossroads between modernism and postmodernism: if it relies on a postmodern parodic gesture, it nevertheless foregrounds the epiphanic modernist agenda of achieving social justice and spiritual regeneration.

Performing Race: Interrogating Gareth Hinds’ Graphic Novel Adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet

Graphic novel adaptations, such as Gareths Hinds’ Romeo and Juliet, are a popular way to introduce audiences to Shakespeare, however focusing on a young audience obscures the fact that these are sophisticated interpretations integrating graphics and text, providing opportunities for adapters to reinterpret classic texts. The combination of visual and verbal resembles performance media (film and stage) and many of the analytical processes used for performance can also be applied to graphic novels. Recent studies of 20th and 21st century film and stage adaptations of Shakespeare critique the practices of directors and others involved in the selection process of actors of color for Shakespeare productions where race is not indicated in the original play text. These practices offer different approaches to, and understandings of, the semiotics of race in performance and the critiques identify issues associated with these various approaches. Applying these studies to graphic novel adaptations provides a more detailed understanding of the impact on audience reception of how adapters represent the characters and story lines of Shakespeare’s original texts. This paper interrogates Gareth Hind’s graphic novel adaptation and argues that, contrary to his stated intent of emphasizing universal themes, by racializing the Montagues and the Capulets, he introduces themes such as differential racialism and colorism into the story that problematizes readers’ interpretations of this classic Shakespeare text. This interrogation applies an understanding of the semiotics of race and performance in terms of non-traditional types of casting of characters, with a close reading of the interaction of graphics and text, comparing this reading to similar film and stage performances and how that reading may be interpreted/misinterpreted by readers/viewers.

The Fallout of Shakespeare: Playing and Video Game Theater

Abstract: This article adopts a principle from game design theory which views "play" as a type of negotiation with (and against) the constraints of a given environment. The performances of The Wasteland Theatre Company, an amateur theater troupe staging Shakespearean texts collaboratively online using the video game Fallout 76 , are examined in light of this approach to playing. This article discusses how tensions between the Shakespearean text and the performances of The Wasteland Theatre Company coerce their audiences into active interpretation of both the game's and the performed text's content. The principle of playing as negotiation, moreover, has applicability beyond video games. Demonstrating how productions can break or bend the "rules" which their texts or settings impose, The Wasteland Theatre Company's approach foregrounds the ways in which such rule-breaking encourages audiences to actively interpret the performance.

“Not For An Age, But For All Time:” Autobiography and a Re-origin of Shakespeare Studies in Canada

Despite independence as a country, Canada belongs to the Commonwealth and has deep colonial roots and the British educational system was key in creating Canadian curricula. Given the centrality of Shakespeare’s work in the British literary canon, it follows that it would also figure heavily in the academic requirements for Canadian students. At the dawn of the Confederation (1867), the high school curriculum used Shakespeare to emphasize a “humanist” approach to English literature using the traditional teaching methods of reading, rhetoric, and recitation. Presently, Shakespeare continues to be the only author in the high school curriculum to whom an independent area of study is dedicated. The origin of Shakespeare in Canada through curriculum and instruction is, thus, a result from the canonic tradition imported from Britain.
 This traditional model no longer fits the imperative of multiculturalism, as reflected in the Canadian Constitution Act (1982). Yet, with the appropriate methodology Shakespeare’s texts can be a vehicle for multiculturalism, social justice, and inclusivity. In light of recent disillusionments concerning the relevance of Shakespearean texts in high school curricula, this paper proposes an alternative pedagogical approach that envisages changing this paradigm and fostering a re-origin of Shakespeare studies in Canada through an intentional pedagogical process grounded in individual experience.
 Scholarship has highlighted the importance of autobiographies in the learning process and curriculum theorists William Pinar and Madeleine Grumet designed a framework that prioritizes individual experience. Our approach to teaching Shakespeare’s works aligns with the four steps of their currere method, presented as: (1) contemplative, (2) translational, (3) experiential, and (4) reconceptual, fostering an opportunity for self-transformation through trans-historical social themes present in the text.
 The central argument is that Shakespeare’s text can undergo a re-origin when lived, given its initial conception as embodied, enacted narrative in the early modern period. In this method, students immerse themselves in Shakespeare’s text through films and stage productions and then manifest their interpretations by embodying the literature based on their autobiographical narratives. To undergo a re-origin in the Canadian secondary curriculum, current pedagogical approaches to teaching Shakespeare require a paradigm shift.

"Sheklyanur text" in the novel by Yivan Osmin "Between Heaven and Earth"

This article is prepared as part of the study of the actual problem of local supertext in the literature. It examines the "Sheklyanur text" of the documentary-fiction (autobiographical, memoir) novel by the Mari writer Yivan Osmin "Kava den mlande koklashte" ("Between Heaven and Earth"). The author identifies, describes and analyzes the main components of the "Sheklyanur text" (the problems tied to the Sheklyanur plot line and the Sheklyanur part of the biography of the central character acting as a narrator, the system of characters and events, descriptions, administrative and geographical realities, ethnographic scenes and details, language features), their place in the artistic structure of the novel and also highlights the historical context of the "Shakespearean text", most clearly visible in its ring composition and having a dramatic and tragic orientation. The methodological basis of the research is the historical-genetic method and the structural-semantic analysis of the work. They made it possible to identify and adequately interpret the meaningful lines of the "Shakespearean text" to the maximum extent, to describe the key elements of its poetics. Yyvan Osmin's novel "Between Heaven and Earth" for the first time in regional and Russian science has become the object of special analysis, it is studied in the context of the actual, almost unexplored in Mari philology problem of local overtext in literature. The "Sheklyanur text" of the novel is considered as a focus of information about the specific aspects of the village of Sheklyanur (as a socio-cultural space) of the mid-1930s, sustained within the framework of an artistic and documentary (memoir, autobiographical, primary) narrative. The "Sheklyanur text" is filled with memorable everyday scenes of a personal and social nature, which, together with open ethnographic elements, recreate pictures of the Mari world and some features of its manifestation in a particular place of residence of Mari. The exceptional signs of the "Shakespearean text" were the authentic names of real characters, their destinies, topographical and administrative-economic realities, lexical features of the narrator's speech.

Humanistic Characterization Yet Unattainable Miscegenation: A Contrapuntal Reading of Shakespeare’s Humanism

Objectives: This study proposes a contrapuntal reading for the Oriental/Westerner interracial marriages in William Shakespeare’s Othello, Antony and Cleopatra, and The Merchant of Venice. It aims to show that Edward Said’s postmodern humanism provides intriguing insights which challenge the mainstream interpretations implied by Renaissance humanism. Methods: The study deconstructs the point-counterpoint structure in the aforesaid plays to acknowledge the feasibility of different interpretations for the Oriental discourse using Said’s postmodern humanism. It compares and contrasts Shakespeare’s Renaissance humanism with Said’s understanding of postmodern humanism to show that the latter underscores the necessity of inclusion and the triumphant integration of the Oriental in Western societies. The study opens the Shakespearean texts to new interpretations by examining their humanistic inclinations vis- à vis postmodern humanism which puts its philosophical stances into effective practice in order to influence the global imagination, empower the “Other” and entail ideological change. Results: Shakespeare’s humanism mitigates his Orientalism but does not reverse the stereotypical representation of the “Other” as an individual with exotic cultural background who fails to have a normal relationship with a Western spouse. Shakespeare’s latent advocacy of the stereotypical representation of the “Other” becomes manifest in the outcome of the marriage relationship with the Oriental. The cultural barrier hampers the successful union between the Oriental and the Westerner; accordingly, Shakespeare portrays this relationship as either tragic or comic. Conclusion: The final conclusion that can be drawn from this study is that Shakespeare’s mainstream Renaissance humanism informs his characterization, yet it does not reverse Oriental stereotypes nor does it condone miscegenation, if approached in the light of the tents of postmodern humanism

Redeeming Lady Macbeth

Abstract Justin Kurzel's Macbeth (2015) reflects the religious intertextuality that permeates cultural debates about gender underlying Shakespeare's text. The aim of this article is to determine the extent to which Kurzel's cinematic text challenges or conforms to medieval and early modern gender construals in its attempt to allegedly rewrite and redeem Lady Macbeth by articulating hegemonic Christian and Pagan discourses on womanhood, femininity and (dis)embodiment. In this context, Julian of Norwich's theology, especially her conception of ‘divine motherhood’ and sin, is key to assess the film's concern with atoning Lady Macbeth for her transgressions through its depiction of her haunting motherhood, which is presented as the origin of her grief and guilt as well as her road to penitence and redemption.

Taking Shakespeare in Stride: Lady Macbeth at the American Repertory Theatre

ABSTRACT Macbeth in Stride, a live ‘concert play’, created an assemblage of original dialogue, R&B, gospel, and rock music, and ‘Shakespeare fragments’ to put Lady Macbeth into action as a figure of Black feminine desire and ambition. Yet, rather than read Lady Macbeth as a ‘universal’ figure—the problematic of which scholars of performance, casting, and adaptation have theorized—this production used three distinct, overlapping characters to suggest Lady Macbeth’s resonance with gendered and racialized experience as well as the Shakespearean text’s entanglement with structures of oppression circumscribing those experiences. Creator Whitney White performed ‘Woman’, Lady Macbeth, and (I argue) an implied character bridging the gap between them: Lady M. Lady M.’s musical numbers provided a shared subjectivity for both Woman and Lady Macbeth, embodying a dialectic between performing Shakespeare and performing Blackness. So, too, Macbeth in Stride suggested a pedagogical paradigm for taking Shakespeare in stride. Staging acts of reading in and for Black communities, the show invited audiences to locate themselves in the text while acknowledging the ways in which the text failed to accommodate them. To take Shakespeare in stride is to see and shift the forces that frustrate both reparative reading and gender and racial equality.

Остров тоталитаризма: «Макбет» Орсона Уэллса

By the time of the eventual success of the premiere of Macbeth (1936) directed by Orson Welles as part of the Harlem Negro project by FTP, the African American theater already had its own small but remarkable history. However, this production received a tremendous response and is still the subject of controversy among scholars: evidence of this resonance is the appearance of the feature film Voodoo Macbeth (2021). All roles were performed by black actors, and the action was transferred to Haiti during the reign of Henry Christophe. Critics were disturbed by the disrespectful attitude to the Shakespearean text, modern researchers — by the exoticization of the African American cultural code. The reason for the discussion was (and still is) the director's radical interpretation, which shifted the semantic accents from Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to the witches. By increasing their role quantitatively and qualitatively, Orson Welles, a contemporary of the growing totalitarian regimes, created a piece about the all-pervading evil leveling the human personality. Having changed the chronotope of Shakespeare's tragedy and rethinking the principle of working with Shakespeare's heritage, Welles, for the first time in the history of American theatre, invited black actors to perform universal characters, to work with classical dramaturgy. Article is based on vast amount of archival materials, critical reviews and researches on Orson Welles and the Federal Theatre Project. Article examines the steps of the formation of the director's and set designer’s concepts, a reconstruction of the production is executed among other purposes.

Shakespeare’s ‘Lady Editors’: A New History of the Shakespearean Text. By Molly G. Yarn

Molly G. Yarn’s Shakespeare’s “Lady Editors”: A New History of the Shakespearean Text is one of the best books published on Shakespeare in the last decade. Drawing on a wealth of material from twenty-eight different archives and over 160 editions from the eighteenth century to the present, and surveying the work of nearly seventy (largely forgotten) women editors, Yarn uncovers a remarkable history of women’s involvement in the long tradition of editing Shakespeare. The result is a ground-breaking, moving, and fascinating book that will influence the study of textual editing for years to come. Yarn’s opening chapter argues that “the established language, conventions, and assumptions surrounding the editorial task conspire to exclude women from Shakespearean editorial history” (9). Using the term “domestic text” to describe editions designed for women, children, and working-class readers, Yarn demonstrates that subjective judgements about what constitutes an “important” edition have created a hierarchy of editions that has relegated texts edited by women to obscurity. For example, Yarn notes that there are twenty-two unique editions of As You Like It edited by women before 1950, yet the recent Arden 3, New Cambridge, and Oxford editions of the play collate only one, by Charles and Mary Cowden Clarke. The neglect of editions often designed for home reading has led to “a self-perpetuating system of exclusion, shaped by generations of subjective judgements” (20).

From Adfectatio to “Affectation”: Affection as Catachresis in Shakespearean Texts

This article argues that the catachrestic usage of “affection” to mean “affectation” in Shakespearean drama may be best understood with reference to Quintilian’s Institutio oratoria, which employs catachresis in using the existing Latin word adfectatio to render the Greek word κακόζηλον [cacozēlon]. Quintilian’s influential picture of the all-encompassing rhetorical vice of adfectatio, his catachrestic practice, and his descriptions of catachresis as both a necessary extension of the meaning of an existing word and a poetic device, appear to have influenced Shakespeare’s portrayal of some of his most complex and articulate characters, among them Hamlet and Leontes (of The Winter’s Tale). Through these characters and their catachrestic speeches, we are forced to contend with the possibility that their “affections” may be nothing more (or less) than “affectations.”

Thinking Does Not Make It So

Thinking Does Not Make It So

From Adfectatio to “Affectation”: Affection as Catachresis in Shakespearean Texts

:This article argues that the catachrestic usage of “affection to mean “affectation” in Shakespearean drama may be best understood with reference to Quintilian’s Institutio oratoria, which employs catachresis in using the existing Latin word adfectatio to render the Greek word ϰαϰόζηλον [cacozēlon]. Quintilian’s influential picture of the all-encompassing rhetorical vice of adfectatio, his catachrestic practice, and his descriptions of catachresis as both a necessary extension of the meaning of an existing word and a poetic device, appear to have influenced Shakespeare’s portrayal of some of his most complex and articulate characters, among them Hamlet and Leontes (of The Winter’s Tale). Through these characters and their catachrestic speeches, we are forced to contend with the possibility that their “affections” may be nothing more (or less) than “affectations.”

Live at the Porpentine: A Comedy of Errors

Reviewed by: Live at the Porpentine: A Comedy of Errors Robin Alfriend Kello Live at the Porpentine: A Comedy of Errors Presented by The Independent Shakespeare Company. Streamed via You-Tube, 10–20 March 2022. On demand streaming via Vimeo. Directed by David Melville. Written by David Melville and William Shakespeare. Music by David Melville. Cinematography and editing by William Lancaster. Sound mixed by Christina Jacobson. Costume design by Ann Closs-Farley. Set design by Natalie Morales. With Brent Charles (Antipholus), Tonya Kay (Luce), Carene Rose Mekertichyan (Luciana), David Melville (Dr. Pinch), Xavi Moreno (Dromio), Bukolo Ogunmola (Adriana), Erika Soto (Frau Müller), and Sabra Williams (Emilia). A chanteuse and a goat walk into a bar. The chanteuse is Frau Müller, a mysterious grifter with a golden voice and a taste for diamonds. The goat is Mel, a delightful creature of appetites who gets stolen, swapped, and drawn into a series of wayward plots on a long Ephesian afternoon. The bar, of course, is The Porpentine (est. 1952), the smoky, swanky cabaret at the heart of David Melville’s film adaptation of The Comedy of Errors, which takes Shakespeare into the technicolor, pre-Beatles 1960s and ups the ante on the entwined erotic and commercial strands of his dramatic source. Just as the budding English playwright looked at the dramatic model of Plautus’s Menaechmi and thought, “Hey, you know what this play could use?—more twins!”, Melville works the already over-the-top twists and turns of Errors into a dazzling, Freudian funhouse of sight gags and none-too-subtle sexual innuendos, punctuated by a moody score and the episodic appearances of Müller and Mel, who serve as delightful guides to the dizzying world of Live at the Porpentine. [End Page 468] Click for larger view View full resolution Frau Müller (Erika Soto) in Live at the Porpentine, dir. David Melville. The Independent Shakespeare Company, 2022. Photo courtesy of Better than Dreams. From the get-go, the film drops its audience into an aesthetic straight out of The Pink Panther, with Müller, played with hip-swaying swagger by Erika Soto, providing backstory through song, while cartoon credits dance onscreen: “Four little boys, each the mirror image / Took a family pilgrimage / On a southern sea.” Soto stretches the word “pilgrimage” to make the rhyme with “mirror image,” bringing out Melville’s witty lyricism, and setting a tone that echoes the film’s bright palette of Pantones. Exposition has never been such fun. As anyone familiar with Errors knows, two of those little boys lost at sea were Antipholus of Syracuse and Antipholus of Ephesus, twins who in the play endure a few hours of mix-up and mayhem before a miraculous family reunion. The other set of separated twins, the Dromios, attend the errant Antipholuses as they stumble through Ephesus, beginning to doubt their sanity while entangling themselves in troubles both romantic and financial. The original plot revolves around a thousand variations of the same joke—twins! But the audience does not come, and certainly will not stay, for plot alone, and though the vibrant colors, physical comedy, and jazzy tunes lure the spectator in, the fine performances of the actors sustain Porpentine’s two hours’ traffic of streaming on YouTube. Brent Charles stars as the bewildered Antipholus of Syracuse and as his twin from Ephesus, an errant lush who strays to the Porpentine to escape the comforts of domesticity. Whether taking an ice-cream cone on the head or making out with Tonya Kay’s seductive Luce, Xavi Moreno’s Dromios present a [End Page 469] playful openness to happenstance, as if the only reasonable response to the confusion of Ephesus is to roll with the—occasionally literal—punches. As the sisters Adriana and Luciana, Bukolo Ogunmola and Carene Rose Mekertichyan, with a huff, squeal, or an eyeroll, decimate any lingering desire the audience may have for strict fidelity to the Shakespearean text. As Melville—who also plays Müller’s sidekick in the Porpentine, the lead guitarist and quack physician Dr. Pinch—explained to me, what counted as funny in 1593 may have gone stale by 1594, and some of the Elizabethan punchlines of...

The Stage Universalism of Peter Brook's Directed Theater

The purpose of the work is to dentify the features of the artistic work of English director Peter Brook through the prism of the experimental nature of his creative studio. The methodology of the research is to use the following methods: historical – to study the specifics of the development of artistic creativity of P. Brooke during the twentieth – early XXI century. in the context of transformational features of socio-cultural space and theatrical art; typological – aimed at identifying and defining the techniques and methods of directorial universalism of P. Brooke; art critic, who helped to identify the specifics of the formation and formation of the director's handwriting of P. Brooke, through the prism of innovative experiments and stage universalism of his creative studio. The novelty of the study lies in a comprehensive study and analysis of the artistic work of English director Peter Brook in the context of the specifics of his theater studio. Conclusions. Although Brooke's ideas are not always innovative - most of them were borrowed from his avant-garde contemporaries, his extraordinary talent lies in his unique ability to represent these ideas on stage, experimenting with the very nature of theater. His use of innovative methods of interpreting the classical Shakespearean text and the experience of avant-garde trends in European theater contributed to the formation of a new canon, representative of which were such components of theatrical performance as scenography, mise-en-scène, light score, musical design, and acting. P. Brooke's directorial works clearly represent modern culture – a network of branched symbols or interpretations, in which the director interprets the realities of the classical text, agreeing only with his own rules.
 Key words: theater, director, Peter Brook, creative workshop, actor.

Teaching Shakespeare: Inviting Engagement with Shakespeare through Drama-Based Group Play

The education programs director for the Atlanta Shakespeare Company and a teacher educator partnered to create a series of performance-based workshops for teachers and students studying a Shakespeare text.

The Victorian Cult of Shakespeare: Bardology in the Nineteenth Century

The Victorian Cult of Shakespeare: Bardology in the Nineteenth Century

Shakespeare's The Bachelorette

Our joint presentation combines performance and parody to create a playful and accessible approach to understanding Shakespearean texts and the power of adaptation. We intend to populate the TV show “The Bachelorette” with Shakespeare’s characters, thus using popular culture to reveal the problematic aspects of Shakespeare’s plays. We want to appeal to up and coming generations and include those who may not have the background or elite education to understand Shakespeare on their own. One possibility we hope to explore is Ophelia choosing among several Shakespearean tragic heroes vying for her hand. Additionally, we will deconstruct Shakespearean gender norms and notions of sexuality, and probe the queer experience, or the lack thereof, in Shakespearean adaptations. Many Shakespearean popular media adaptations skirt around the queer undertones of the texts from which they derive their material. Our exploration is facilitated by the critical and parodic nature of our presentation, drawing on influences from Shakespeare’s own works and popular adaptations like Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 film Romeo + Juliet and Iqbal Khan’s 2015 theatrical production of Othello to challenge and subvert Shakespearean conventions. While many Shakespearean adaptations exalt and revere Shakespeare, our experiment hopes to discover what a queer and irreverent eye might make of Shakespeare.
 Mediums:
 
 Presentation
 Mini essay

‘The Jew of Venice’ (1701): il primo Shylock dopo Shakespeare

The scenic fortune of The Merchant of Venice marks a turning point in 1741 thanks to the interpretation of the character of Shylock by the actor Charles Macklin, consecrated by Alexander as ‘the Jew that Shakespeare drew’. A recognition of the actor’s value, but also a sign of distance from The Jew of Venice, the adaptation by George Granville with which in 1701 the comedy that had been missing from the stage for almost a century was revived, albeit in a modified form. The essay analyses the genesis and compositional structure of the adaptation in which Granville seeks a mediation between the aim for ‘regularization’ in the classicist sense of the Shakespearean text and the desire to preserve its essence, ‘the silver at the bottom of the melting pot’. Consistent with these purposes is the assignment of the part of Shylock to the comic actor Thomas Doggett, whose artistic and character profile is outlined through many testimonies of long-time companions. On the other hand, the iconographic testimonies are few, though for the first time they are examined together with an engraving contained in the first modern edition of Shakespearean Works published in 1709. The comparison leads to hypothesize that the first existing image of the character of Shylock is also the first to portray an actor, Thomas Doggett.