Academic literature on the topic 'Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 – Stage history – 20th century'

Shakespeare has been performed on Australian stages for over two hundred years, yet despite this fact, in Australia we still treat Shakespeare as a revered idol. It seems that, as a nation of second-class convicts, consciously or not, we regard Shakespeare as a product of our aristocratic founders. However deeply buried the belief may be, we still think that the British perform Shakespeare ‘the right way’. As a result, when staging his plays today, our productions suffer from a cultural cringe. This research sought to combat these inhibiting ideologies and endeavoured to find a way in which Australians might claim ownership over Shakespeare in contemporary productions of his plays. The methodology used to undertake this investigation was practice-led research, with the central practice being theatre directing. The questions the research posed were: can Australian directors in the 21st century navigate and reshape Shakespeare's works in productions that give actors and audiences ownership over Shakespeare? And, what role can irreverence play in this quest for ownership? In order to answer these questions, a strong reference point was required, to understand what Shakespeare, with no strings attached to tradition and scholarly reverence, looked and felt like. Taiwan became an ideal reference point, as the country is a site for unrestrained and strongly localised performances of the Shakespearean tradition. The company at the forefront of such Taiwanese productions is Contemporary Legend Theatre (CLT). Wu Hsing-kuo, the Artistic Director of CLT, creates jingju (Beijing opera) adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays, the most renowned of which is his solo King Lear, titled Li Er zaici. The intention of the practice-led research was to use the ideas gathered from an interview with Wu and through watching a performance of Li Er zaici, to form an approach to directing Shakespeare in Australia today, which was free from the restrictions commonly encountered by Australians. The practical project involved trialling this approach in a series of workshops and rehearsals with eight actors over eight weeks, which ultimately resulted in a performance of an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. Wu’s approach generated a sense of ownership over Shakespeare amongst the actors and widened their dominant, narrow concept of Shakespeare performances in Australia to incorporate a wealth of new possibilities. Yet, from this practical experiment, the strength and depth of the inhibiting ideologies surrounding Shakespeare in Australia was made apparent, as even when consciously seeking to remove them, they formed unconscious impediments. Despite the initial intention, a sense of veneration towards Shakespeare’s text entered the rehearsal process for Romeo and Juliet. This practice-led research revealed that as Australians we have an almost inescapable attachment to Shakespeare’s text, which ultimately begs the contrary question: in order to stage an irreverent and owned production of Shakespeare in Australia, how much of Shakespeare and his traditions must we abandon?

Orientador: Leandro Karnal
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas
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Resumo: A pesquisa pretende estudar parte do processo de constituição identitária da América, principalmente no que se refere à identificação do continente com uma obra produzida em um contexto europeu. A obra em questão é a peça A Tempestade, de William Shakespeare. Enquanto a peça foi escrita na Inglaterra do século XVII, suas ressignificações ligadas à América datam do final do século XIX e início do XX, e demonstram uma constante renovação das metáforas contidas na obra original. Tendo como eixo principal a leitura realizada sobre as personagens Ariel e Calibã, as interpretações da peça representam a adoção de modelos para o continente americano, obedecendo a uma dinâmica de intercâmbio América - Europa. Os modelos acabam servindo para a formação de utopias, projetos políticos e para a construção de uma identidade americana, assim como apresentam indícios para o estabelecimento de outra construção: a de termos generalizantes como América Latina, Iberoamerica e Anglo-América. Busca-se, portanto, por meio da leitura da peça e de suas interpretações, realizar uma análise histórica sobre a formação de um discurso identitário e cultural para os países americanos
Abstract: The research intends to study part of the process of identity constitution in America, with the primary focus in the identification of the continent with work produced in a european context. The work in question is the play The Tempest, by William Shakespeare. The play was written in XVIIth century England, but its re-significations linked to America date from late XIXth and early XXth, demonstrating a constante renovation of the metaphors contained in the original work. The interpretations of the play center on the caracthers Ariel and Caliban, representing the adotion of models for the american continent, following a exchange dynamic between America and Europe. The models are used for the formation of utopias, political projects and for the constrution of an american identity, presenting indications for the establishment of another constrution: the formation of generalizing terms as Latin America, Ibero America and Anglo America. The intention is, therefore, by reading the play and its interpretations, realize a historical analysis about the formation of an identity and cultural discourse for the american countries
Mestrado
Historia Cultural
Mestre em História

At first glance, the long tradition of Quebecois adaptations of Shakespeare might seem paradoxical, since Quebec is a francophone nation seeking political independence and has little direct connection to the British literary canon. However, it is precisely this cultural distance that allows Quebecois playwrights to play irreverently with Shakespeare and use his texts to explore issues of nation and gender which are closely connected to each other. Soon after the Quiet Revolution, adaptations such as Robert Gurik's Hamlet, prince du Quebec and Jean-Claude Germain's Rodeo et Juliette raised the question "To be or not to be free" in order to interrogate how Quebec could take action to achieve independence. In Macbeth and La tempete, Michel Garneau "tradapts" Shakespeare and situates his texts in the context of the Conquest. Jean-Pierre Ronfard's Lear and Vie et mort du Roi Boiteux carnivalize the nation and permit women to rise to power. Adaptations since 1990 reveal awareness of the need for cultural and gender diversity so that women, queers, and immigrants may contribute more to the nation's development. Since Quebec is simultaneously colonial, neo-colonial, and postcolonial, Quebecois playwrights negotiate differently than English Canadians the fine line between the enrichment of their local culture and its possible contamination, assimilation, or effacement by Shakespeare's overwhelming influence, which thus allows them to appropriate his texts in service of gender issues and the decolonization of the Quebec nation.