A Short History of Shakespeare in Performance: From the Restoration to the Twenty-First Century PDF
Preview A Short History of Shakespeare in Performance: From the Restoration to the Twenty-First Century
This short history of Shakespeare in global performance – from S A Short History of C the reopening of London theatres upon the restoration of the H o monarchy in 1660 to our present multicultural day – provides C Shakespeare in Performance a comprehensive overview of Shakespeare’s theatrical afterlife H and introduces categories of analysis and understanding to make that afterlife intellectually meaningful. Written for both From the Restoration to the the advanced student and the practicing scholar, this work enables readers to situate themselves historically in the broad Twenty-First Century field of Shakespeare performance studies and equips them with A analytical tools and conceptual frameworks for making their S h own contributions to the field. o r t H is to r y o f S h a k e s p e a Elements in Shakespeare Performance r e Series Editor: in P W. B. Worthen e r Barnard College fo r m a n c e Shakepeare Performance ISSN 2516-0117 (online) ISSN 2516-0109 (print) Richard Schoch Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 138.199.39.208, on 21 Apr 2021 at 09:59:02, subject Cover image © Alberto Seveso to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108625838 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 138.199.39.208, on 21 Apr 2021 at 09:59:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108625838 ElementsinShakespearePerformance editedby W.B.Worthen BarnardCollege A SHORT HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE IN PERFORMANCE From the Restoration to the Twenty-First Century Richard Schoch Queen’s University Belfast Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 138.199.39.208, on 21 Apr 2021 at 09:59:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108625838 UniversityPrintingHouse,CambridgeCB28BS,UnitedKingdom OneLibertyPlaza,20thFloor,NewYork,NY10006,USA 477WilliamstownRoad,PortMelbourne,VIC3207,Australia 314–321,3rdFloor,Plot3,SplendorForum,JasolaDistrictCentre, NewDelhi–110025,India 79AnsonRoad,#06–04/06,Singapore079906 CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge. ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence. www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781108714440 DOI:10.1017/9781108625838 ©RichardSchoch2021 Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished2021 AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. ISBN978-1-108-71444-0Paperback ISSN2516-0117(online) ISSN2516-0109(print) CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof URLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublicationand doesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain, accurateorappropriate. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 138.199.39.208, on 21 Apr 2021 at 09:59:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108625838 A Short History of Shakespeare in Performance From the Restoration to the Twenty-First Century ElementsinShakespearePerformance DOI:10.1017/9781108625838 Firstpublishedonline:April2021 RichardSchoch Queen’sUniversityBelfast Authorforcorrespondence:RichardSchoch,[email protected] Abstract:ThisshorthistoryofShakespeareinglobal performance–fromthereopeningofLondontheatres upontherestorationofthemonarchyin1660toourpresent multiculturalday–providesacomprehensiveoverviewof Shakespeare’stheatricalafterlifeandintroducescategories ofanalysisandunderstandingtomakethatafterlife intellectuallymeaningful.Writtenforboththeadvanced studentandthepracticingscholar,thisworkenables readerstosituatethemselveshistoricallyinthebroadfield ofShakespeareperformancestudiesandequipsthemwith analyticaltoolsandconceptualframeworksformaking theirowncontributionstothefield. KEYWORDS:shakespeare,theatre,performance,drama ©RichardSchoch2021 ISBNs:9781108714440(PB),9781108625838(OC) ISSNs:2516-0117(online),2516-0109(print) Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 138.199.39.208, on 21 Apr 2021 at 09:59:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108625838 Contents 1 Introduction 1 2 Shakespeare in the Restoration 8 3 ‘Old Shakespeare’s Ghost’ 15 4 Shakespeare in the Eighteenth Century 20 5 Shakespeare the Victorian 40 6 Modern Shakespeare 56 7 Shakespeare’s Voices, Shakespeare’s Spaces 74 8 Global Shakespeare 81 Bibliography 90 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 138.199.39.208, on 21 Apr 2021 at 09:59:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108625838 AShortHistoryofShakespeareinPerformance 1 1 Introduction It’snotunusualforthosewhoread,watch,orstageShakespeare’splaysto assume that they exist in only two historical moments: ‘then’ and ‘now’. ‘Then’ is Shakespeare’s lifetime – 1564 to 1616 – when his plays were writtenandoriginallyperformedandwhenRichardBurbagefirstspoke‘To beornottobe’fromthestageoftheGlobeTheatreonLondon’sBankside. ‘Now’istheever-advancingpresent,whetherforanundergraduatestudent takingaShakespeareclass,touristsvisitingStratford-upon-Avontoseethe latestproductionbytheRoyalShakespeareCompany(RSC),ortheartistic teamplanningnextyear’sseasonattheAustralianShakespeareCompanyin Melbourne. TheideathatShakespeareexistssimultaneouslyin‘then’and‘now’was firstexpressedbyBenJonsoninhiscommendatoryverseprefacingthe1623 FirstFolio,thefirstpublishedcollectionofShakespeare’splays,inwhichhe declaredthattheplaywrightwasboth‘souleoftheage’and‘notofanage, but for all time’. A brief seven years after Shakespeare’s death, Jonson imaginedbothapastandafutureforhislatefriendandrivalpoet.Timehas provedJonsonright.ThebeliefthatShakespearebelongsbothtohistime andtoourtimehasbeenthemostenduringlypowerfulbeliefinthehistory ofhistheatricalandliteraryafterlife.Withoutthatbelief,‘Shakespeare’the cultural icon recognized the world over would not exist; and in all prob- ability,neitherwouldthetextyouarenowreading. YetJonson’swordsalsorevealsomethingelse:theconfidentassertionthat Shakespeare will be continuously relevant – for all time – and not just relevant to the immediate here and now. A perpetually relevant Shakespeare–afixedlongitudinalpresence–immediatelycreatesahistory, because every experience turns into a memory and every today becomes ayesterday.Thesestockpiledmemoriesandaccumulatedyesterdays–notof any single person but of peoples and cultures collectively – make up the history of how Shakespeare has been understood, valued, adapted, argued over,rejected,andevendenounceddownthecenturiesandaroundtheworld. Occupying the middle zone between the distant ‘then’ of early modern England and the always fugitive ‘now’ of our own direct experience, this history is nothing other than the complex and multivoiced record of what Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 138.199.39.208, on 21 Apr 2021 at 09:59:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108625838 2 ShakespearePerformance Shakespearehasmeantinvarioustimesandinvariousplacestovarioussorts ofpeople. Nowherehasthishistoryunfoldedmorevigorouslythanupontheliving stage,the‘unworthyscaffold’(asShakespearedescribedhisownoutdoor theatreinthefamousprologuetoHenryV)whosebusinessisthecreationof bravenewworlds.Thishistoryisrichlydiverse,embracingSarahSiddons’ unnerving performance of Lady Macbeth in the late eighteenth century when she performed the sleepwalking scene with her eyes open and so expressing the magnified power of the actor’s slightest movement or gesture; the Hindu Theatre of Calcutta, whose inaugural production in December1841includedscenesfromJuliusCaesar;andthebirthof‘modern dress’ Shakespeare in Barry Jackson’s production of Cymbeline at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in England in 1923, in which characters dressedliketheaudiencetomakeaveryoldplay,asJacksonputit,relevant to‘theman[sic]inthestreet’. ThisElementwillattempttoencompassthatstrangeeventfulhistory, tryingtomakeitintelligibleandmeaningfultoavarietyofreaders,from working scholars wanting to situate themselves in a dynamic research field to students who might never have had occasion to think about how previous generations staged Shakespeare or how other cultures do so now. YetIhopethatallreadersmightagreethatthehistoryofShakespearein performance is fascinating because it is both familiar and foreign. It’s familiar because the plays and the characters feel close to us. We know what happens: Romeo and Juliet die, Richard II loses his crown, and a disguised Portia wins in the courtroom. Thus, we inevitably bring a good deal of pertinent knowledge to any investigation of Shakespeare performance history. In one performance of his 1838 production of The Winter’s Tale, William Charles Macready (1793–1873), playing Leontes, suddenlykissedandcaressedthehairofHelenaFaucit(1817–1898),playing Hermione,inthefamoussceneinAct5whenHermione’sstatuecomesto life. So startled was the young actress that Macready whispered to her, ‘Don’t be frightened my child! don’t be frightened!’ From a distance of nearlytwocenturiesthatprecisemomentinperformancestillseemsfresh andvivid.Weeasilypictureitinourminds. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 138.199.39.208, on 21 Apr 2021 at 09:59:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108625838 AShortHistoryofShakespeareinPerformance 3 Andyetwecanstruggletounderstandorappreciateotheraspectsofthis samehistory,becausepeopleinthepastdidn’talwaysthinkandactlikeus. Despiteourknowledgeoftheplays,Shakespeareperformancehistorycan resistorconfoundus.In1662,SirWilliamDavenant(1606–1668)combined parts of Much Ado about Nothing and Measure for Measure into one play, which he titled The Law Against Lovers. His conflation of two strongly differentworksnowseemsoddorevenwrongheaded:Howdoesthemerry banter between Benedick and Beatrice align with Angelo’s brute sexual manipulationofIsabella?Davenant,whohelpedtorestoretheEnglishstage after its long closure during Puritan rule, was the most pivotal figure in Restoration theatre.Founderof the Duke’sCompany, he produced plays thathebelievedwouldsucceedattheboxoffice.So,hemusthavehadgood reasontowritehisfirstShakespeareadaptation,howeverbizarreitseemsto us. The Law Against Lovers certainly pleased the famous diarist Samuel Pepys, who, after seeing a performance, called it ‘a good play and well performed’. In pondering such strange episodes in Shakespeare perfor- mance history – strange, that is, from our perspective – we must always rememberthatpeopleinthepastcreatedperformancesthatmadesenseto them,justastodaywecreateperformancesthatmakesensetous. Familiar or foreign, does this history matter? Does it matter to the twenty-first century that, in the middle of the nineteenth century, the Anglo-French actor Charles Fechter (1824–1879) (shown in Figure 1) tookLondonbystormwhenheplayedHamletasafriendlyblond-haired Danishprince?Itmatteredtoaudiencesatthetime.The1861production ran for an astonishing 115 consecutive nights when other theatres per- formed two or three different plays each week to attract audiences. Spectators who arrived night after night at the Princess’s Theatre on Oxford Street wanted to see a new sort of Shakespearean tragic hero, neither the brooding aristocratic Hamlet embodied by the haughty tra- gedian John Philip Kemble (1757–1823) at the beginning of the century nor the sedate bourgeois Hamlet conveyed by Macready and Charles Kean (1811–1868) in the 1840s and 1850s. Suddenly, here was a ‘thoroughly human Hamlet’, as a leading London newspaper put it. When Fechter’s Hamlet put his arm around his childhood friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, perched on a gravestone, sat on the Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 138.199.39.208, on 21 Apr 2021 at 09:59:02, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108625838 4 ShakespearePerformance Figure1CharlesFechterasHamlet,Princess’sTheatre,London,photograph, c.1861.Theactor’sposeandgarbmayseemartificialtoustodaybut,inits time, Fechter’s performance was praised for revealing Hamlet’s humanity. Reproduced courtesy of the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC, Downloadedu fnrodmer hattpCs:r//ewawtiwv.ecaCmbormidgme.oonrgs/cAortet.r IiPb uadtidornes-sS: h13a8r.e1A99l.i3k9e.2048.,0 oInn 2t1e Arnpra t2i0o2n1a alt L09i:c5e9n:0s2e, .subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108625838
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