Shakespeare was never meant to be read. And yet, both in school and at university level, this is how we approach the plays – if anything, there is the odd film adaptation we look at to liven up the play as it appears on the page. Primarily, this is a question of availability, because having a production in a theatre nearby is a rare feat. However, with its practice of streaming performances to audiences around the world, the National Theatre has certainly changed the theatre landscape, and The Royal Shakespeare Company as well as Shakespeare’s Globe have followed suit. Whilst the archive created that way remains anglo- or indeed London-centric, Shakespeare has thus become much more accessible.
In this course, we will discuss a number of recent Shakespeares on screen – either film adaptations or recorded performances – to understand the ways in which engaging with Shakespeare in performance can enrich and radically alter our understanding of a particular text. On the one hand, this might be a question of updating it to the here and now; for instance, many recent productions have experimented with so-called ‘gender-blind’ or ‘colour-blind’ casting, both of which can shed new light on aspects otherwise taken for granted. On the other hand, the many live-casts especially have re-interpreted the ‘immediacy’ of theatre, which remains a communal event but one whose ‘liveness’ we can now also experience through a filter; this, too, impacts on the way we perceive a play.
- Lehrende/r: Marlena Tronicke