Representing Shakespeare: England, History and the RSCThis text traces the changing theatrical and cultural identity of the History plays in the context of postwar social and political conflict, crisis and change. Since the company's inception in the early 1960s, the RSC's commitment to relevance has fostered close relationships between Shakespearean criticism and performance, and between the theatre and its audiences. Through a detailed discussion of key productions, from "The War of the Roses" in 1963 to "The Plantegenets" in 1988, Robert Shaughnessy emphasizes the political dimension of contemporary theatrical representations of Shakespeare, and of the "Shakespearean" modes of history that these plays have been employed to promote; individualist, cyclical, male-dominated, and driven by essentialised, transcendent human nature. |
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... human motives and aspirations , writ large : a relentless , vicious , amoral struggle for power . It has been pointed out more than once that both the specific imagery and the general reading derive from Jan Kott's Shakespeare Our ...
... human nature and of character psychology , it was pursued in the productions at the expense of historical and social ... humanity and the indi- vidual spirit , preaching theatrical self - reliance and the Henry IV ( 1975 ) and Henry VI ...
... humanity as the play proceeds ' , and in Part 2 , the ' characters are really established ' ; but it was only in Part ... human beings ' . 68 66 As in Hands's Henry IV cycle , the Henry VI plays narrated a myth of rediscovery , personal ...
Contents
Chapter | 11 |
Production criticism critical production | 22 |
Chapter Three | 37 |
Copyright | |
11 other sections not shown