Foreign Shakespeare: Contemporary Performance

by Dennis Kennedy

Overview

Shakespeare has long been considered the pre-eminent poet and dramatist of the English-speaking world. But although he is the most frequently performed playwright in the world, little attention has been paid to theatrical production of his plays outside the English language. This is the first collection to offer a considered account of contemporary Shakespeare performance in non-English-speaking theatres. Most of the essays focus on Europe, some on Asia. They investigate text and translation theory, the significance of the visual, acting, directing and audience culture, intercultural performance, political appropriation and dissent. Dennis Kennedy introduces the topic within the context of postwar performance, and his Afterword challenges Anglocentric standards of Shakespeare interpretation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521617086
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/11/2004
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	332
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.79(d)

About the Author

Dennis Kennedy's books include The Spectator and the Spectacle: Audiences in Modernity and Postmodernity, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance, Looking at Shakespeare: A Visual History of Twentieth-Century Performance, Foreign Shakespeare, and Granville Barker and the Dream of Theatre. Shakespeare in Asia: Contemporary Performance is due late 2009 (edited with Yong Li Lan). He has twice been a fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities in the USA, twice won the Freedley Award for theatre history, received the Chancellor's Distinguished Research Award at the University of Pittsburgh, the Berkeley Fellowship at Trinity College Dublin, and was elected to the Royal Irish Academy and Academia Europaea. His own plays have been performed in New York, London, and many other places, and he has frequently worked as a dramaturg and director in professional theatres.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations; List of contributors; Preface; Introduction. Shakespeare without his language Dennis Kennedy; Part I. The Foreignness of Shakespeare: 1. Foreign Shakespeare and English-speaking audiences John Russell Brown; 2. Titus Resartus: Warner, Stein and Mesguich have a cut at Titus Andronicus Dominique Goy-Blanquet; 3. Transformations of authenticity: The Merchant of Venice in Israel Avraham Oz; 4. Translation and mise en scène: the example of contemporary French Shakespeare Leanore Lieblein; 5. Audience, style and language in the Shakespeare of Peter Zadek Ron Engle; Part II. Political and National Appropriations: 6. Brecht and beyond: Shakespeare on the East German stage Lawrence Guntner; 7. Theatrical continuities in Giorgio Strehler's The Tempest Pia Kleber; 8. Between the curtain and the grave: The Taganka in the Hamlet Gulag Spencer Golub; 9. Woman scorned: Antony and Cleopatra at Moscow's Vakhtangov Theatre Irena R. Makaryk; 10. Hamlet in postwar Czech theatre Jarka Burian; Part III. Postmodern Shakespeare: 11. Daniel Mesguich and intertextual Shakespeare Marvin Carlson; 12. Word into image: notes on the scenography of recent German productions Wilhelm Hortmann; 13. Shakespeare and the Japanese stage Andrea J. Nouryeh; 14. Wilson, Brook, Zadek: an intercultural encounter? Patrice Pavis; Afterword: Shakespearean Orientalism Dennis Kennedy; Index.