Shakespeare and the Problem of Adaptation

229 Pages·2008·2.94 MB·English

by  Margaret Jane Kidnie

Shakespeare and the Problem
of Adaptation
Shakespeare’s plays continue to be circulated on a massive scale in a
variety of guises – as editions, performances and adaptations – and it is by
meansofsuchproductionsthatwecometoknowhisdrama.Shakespeareand
the Problem of Adaptation addresses fundamental questions about this process
ofidentification,makinguseofthefraughtcategoryofadaptationtoexplore
how we currently understand the Shakespearean work. To adapt implies
there exists something to alter, but what constitutes the category of the
‘play’,andhowdoesitrelatetoadaptation?Howdo‘play’and‘adaptation’
relate to drama’s twin media, text and performance? What impact might
answers to these questions have on current editorial, performance and
adaptation studies?
Margaret Jane Kidnie argues that ‘play’ and ‘adaptation’ are provi-
sional categories – mutually dependent processes that evolve over time in
accordance with the needs of users. This theoretical argument about the
identity of works and the nature of text and performance is pursued in
relation to diverse exam ples, including theatrical productions by the Royal
ShakespeareCompany,theBBC’sShakespeaRe-Told,theReducedShakespeare
Company, and recent print editions of the complete works. These new
readings build up a persuasive picture of the cultural and intellectual pro-
cesses that determine how what is deemed ‘authentically’ Shakespearean is
distinguished from the fraudulent and adaptive. Adaptation thus emerges
astheconceptuallynecessarybutculturallyproblematiccategorythatresults
frompartialoroccasionalfailurestorecognizeashiftingworkinitstextual-
theatrical instance.
Margaret Jane Kidnie is Associate Professor of English at the Uni-
versity of Western Ontario, Canada. She has edited early modern drama
and prose, and has published widely on performance, adaptation, textual
studies and editorial practice. She is currently editing A Woman Killed with
Kindness for the Arden Early Modern Drama series.

Shakespeare and the
Problem of Adaptation
Margaret Jane Kidnie
Firsteditionpublished2009
byRoutledge
2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN
SimultaneouslypublishedintheUSAandCanada
byRoutledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008.
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©2009MargaretJaneKidnie
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedor
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Kidnie,MargaretJane.
Shakespeareandtheproblemofadaptation/MargaretJane
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Includesbibliographicalreferences(p.)andindex.
1.Shakespeare,William,1564–1616–Adaptations–Historyand
criticism.2.Shakespeare,William,1564–1616–Stagehistory.3.
English drama – Adaptations. I. Title.
PR2880.A1.K452008
822.3’3–dc22
2008023496
ISBN 0-203-16771-6 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN13:978-0-415-30867-0(hbk)
ISBN13:978-0-415-30868-7(pbk)
ISBN13:978-0-203-16771-7(ebk)
Dedicated to the memory of
Beth Kidnie (1957–2000)

Contents
List of illustrations ix
Acknowledgements x
Introduction: the problem of adaptation 1
1 Surviving performance: Shakespeare’s contested works 11
Identifying the dramatic work in text and performance 13
Shakespearean performance and/as interpretation 19
Textual production 23
Pragmatic adaptation 27
2 Defining the work through production, or what adaptation
is not 32
Recognizing Hamlet 34
Recognizing the Royal Shakespeare Company 45
3 Entangled in the present: Shakespeare and the politics of
production 65
Writingthe present, exorcizing the past: Djanet Sears’ Harlem Duet 70
Dancing with art: Robert Lepage’s Elsinore 89
4 Adapting media: ShakespeaRe-Told by the BBC 103
Strategies of appropriation: Shakespeare’s ‘divorce comedies’ 104
Writing Shakespeare’s Macbeth for television 112
Mediated proximities, or much ado about ‘noting’ 119
(Re)Telling Dream, building digital Britain 126
viii Contents
5 Textual origins 140
Notes 165
Bibliography 193
Index 210
Illustrations
1 Publicity image of Judi Dench, All’s Well that Ends Well (2003) 49
2 RobertLepageinrehearsalforElsinoreattheMuséed’art
contemporain,Montréal, Canada (1995) 100
3 Interactivemenu,ShakespeaRe-Told,BritishBroadcasting
Corporation 130