HowlRound Theatre Commons: From 27 July to 6 August 2022, audiences gathered in Gdansk, Poland to attend the twenty-sixth annual Gdansk Shakespeare Festival, which hosted contemporary productions from Denmark, Poland, the Czech Republic, Norway, Italy, Ukraine, and the United States. The festival featured diverse versions of William Shakespeare’s work including musicals, radical deconstructions, and dance-theatre explorations. Multiple versions of several plays were presented, allowing audience members to celebrate the malleability of familiar stories and experience these four-hundred-year-old texts as provocative visions of the present moment and the future. In the hands of a group of global theatremakers, Shakespeare’s plays became containers for contemporary considerations of human rights, gender politics, anti-war sentiment, and more.
4 comments:
Shakespeare is such an imposing figure in theater. His impact on the field has been extended beyond what may be deserved depending on who you ask. His most famous works are iconic, and it is hard to dispute that they are impactful. However, it is hard to assess the worth of continuing to tell the stories in a vacuum and whether they would still hold up if it wasn’t for the adoration Shakespeare has received over the last 400 years. This notion that Grenda makes that “No one is more accurate or describes the contemporary world better than Shakespeare” seems a little myopic and disregards playwright across the world for a focus on a Eurocentric canon. There may be better playwrights in the annals of history that were disregarded because they weren’t white and male and queen approved. That said, I think one of the best things about continuing to do Shakespeare is that people can take such creative liberties with the text. They can truly strip it to the bones and it lets the audience ask the question how much can you change a text and have it still be the same story.
The impact that Shakespeare and his work have in the theatre is incredible and unimaginable. The countless adaptation of his written work is widespread around the globe and impacts many people since a young age, including myself. However, it is also true that some of the information within his script are not being seen as morally or ethically correct in the modern days while others have correctly reflect the situation within the modern day society. In this article, the part where Grenda talked about how Shakespeare’s work is “No one is more accurate or describes the contemporary world better than Shakespeare—all those tyrants, the jealousy, hypocrisy, murderers, gossips.” This made me think about contemporary work and how some of them have impacted my decisions and my artistic approach in things. In addition, I thought about how experience in my personal life impacts what I think about a certain piece of art.
I've always wondered about this discussion when it comes to shakespeare. I recognize his important impact on the field obviously, and I can recognize how influential and talented he was, especially for that time. But I do wonder about the efficacy of telling the same stories by the same man for decades, even when the subject matter is questionable at best. I understand that what they’re doing here, many versions of the plays, is a way to modernize and keep things interesting, but there are so many new stories with new voices being told. It does sound like this festival is doing as much as they can to modernize the bard’s work. I was excited to hear about the director’s vision and see all the adjustments they are making to make it more accessible and relevant. Out of all the Shakespeare festivals to attend, I think this would be my choice.
Shakespeare is weird. There is no doubt that his work has been influential, but how his work is treated today in the theatre is relatively unique. Most shows that receive a 'twist' are seen as a singular unique take on that show. However with Shakespeare shows, it is almost never performed as originally intended. Although admittedly there are not to the original productions. His impact spreads beyond his original writings due to this. The huge variety in these productions create a wide variety of messages. I'd love to attend this festival one day!
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