Childhood in Contemporary Performance of Shakespeare

Description

Child characters feature more numerously and prominently in the Shakespearean canon than in that of any other early modern playwright. Focusing on stage and film productions from the past four decades, this study addresses how Shakespeare’s child characters are reflected, refracted and reinterpreted in performance. By adopting an interdisciplinary approach that incorporates close reading, semiotics, childhood studies, queer theory and performance studies, Gemma Miller explores how a close analysis of Shakespeare’s child characters, both in the text and in performance, can reveal often uncomfortable truths about contemporary ideas of childhood, as well as offer fresh insights into the plays. Among the works and productions analysed are stage productions of Richard III by Sean Holmes and Thomas Ostermeier; Jamie Lloyd’s and Michael Boyd’s stage productions of Macbeth and the films of Roman Polanski and Justin Kurzel; Deborah Warner’s stage production of Titus Andronicus and filmed adaptations by Jane Howell and Julie Taymor; and stage productions of The Winter’s Tale by Nicholas Hytner, and by Kenneth Branagh and Rob Ashford, and the ballet adaptation by Christopher Wheeldon. Cover Contents List of Figures Acknowledgements Notes on the Text List of Abbreviations Introduction Simulacrum and Surrogation: The Children of Christopher Wheeldon’s The Winter’s Tale (2014/16) 1 From the Facsimile Page to the Plastic Princes: The Effacement of Childhood in Richard III 2 ‘Fair is foul and foul is fair’: The Janus-Faced Child in Macbeth 3 ‘Behold the child’: The Burden of Futurity in Titus Andronicus 4 ‘No age’: Disappearing Childhood in The Winter’s Tale Conclusion Performing Childhood: Shakespeare and Beyond Notes References Index