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Thursday, January 18, 2024
RSC directors on the Bard’s legacy: ‘You can’t cancel Shakespeare – his work will outlive us all’
The Independent: The new joint artistic directors of the Royal Shakespeare Company have said the Bard’s work will “outlive us all” in response to recent calls to cancel Shakespeare.
The RSC’s co-artistic directors Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey unveiled their debut season at the Stratford-upon-Avon institution on Tuesday 16 January.
I definitely agree with everything this article talked about. I understand that not everyone loves Shakespeare and I think that is totally ok. I do however believe that Shakespeare will be around forever. I think that if we are talking about Shakespeare and the role it fills within the theatrical world I think that if there is a shift within the role it will move from a more traditional setting to a more modern setting. This summer I will be working on a production that is going to be a version of midsummer nights dream that is still Shakespeare but translated into more modern and “understandable” language. I also recently saw "Anyone but You" at the theater and LOVED IT! There were direct quotes from much ado about nothing and so many references that I was able to pick up on. I think that if anything Shakespeare will just shift and not necessarily get canceled.
This topic is something I think about a lot. Shakespeare has aged remarkably well considering everything. Most pieces that are even 30 years old don’t hold up to today’s standards of what is ok to put on stage so all things considered, Shakespeare did a great job of staying PC, especially for his time. That being said, there are some obviously problematic elements to his plays. In general female characters are often merely plot devices to further the man’s story. Of course that isn’t always true but it happens a lot. The question of Merchant of Venice brought up in this article is really interesting. In all honesty when I first read Merchant of Venice I thought I was supposed to sympathize with Shylock and the story actually followed the villains. However, that interpretation is a stretch given the events of the Merchant of Venice. I wonder if an interpretation of the play exists where the Antisemitisic nature of the play does not. Or is antisemitism such an integral part of the play that if you took it out Merchant of Venice would be gone. I don’t have an answer. I’m curious to see what RSC does.
I personally think this article is a little silly because I have never heard of anyone demanding that we cancel Shakespeare. I think that there is something to be said about recognizing and reworking some of his more problematic works, such as Merchant of Venice, but I do not think that I have ever heard someone talk about cancelling Shakespeare. Indeed, he is still the world’s most produced playwright, by a lot, so I think that this whole argument is full of logical fallacy. I think there’s a difference between cancellation, and recognizing and being aware of biases and stereotypes present in his work, and trying to make those biases less prevalent and such. I also think it is a little silly to announce that you’re performing Shakespeare as if it is revolutionary news, considering that, again, he is the most frequently produced playwright every year. I understand that this is a marketing tactic, but to act as if your company is quirky and different for daring to do Shakespeare is crazy to me.
3 comments:
I definitely agree with everything this article talked about. I understand that not everyone loves Shakespeare and I think that is totally ok. I do however believe that Shakespeare will be around forever. I think that if we are talking about Shakespeare and the role it fills within the theatrical world I think that if there is a shift within the role it will move from a more traditional setting to a more modern setting. This summer I will be working on a production that is going to be a version of midsummer nights dream that is still Shakespeare but translated into more modern and “understandable” language. I also recently saw "Anyone but You" at the theater and LOVED IT! There were direct quotes from much ado about nothing and so many references that I was able to pick up on. I think that if anything Shakespeare will just shift and not necessarily get canceled.
This topic is something I think about a lot. Shakespeare has aged remarkably well considering everything. Most pieces that are even 30 years old don’t hold up to today’s standards of what is ok to put on stage so all things considered, Shakespeare did a great job of staying PC, especially for his time. That being said, there are some obviously problematic elements to his plays. In general female characters are often merely plot devices to further the man’s story. Of course that isn’t always true but it happens a lot. The question of Merchant of Venice brought up in this article is really interesting. In all honesty when I first read Merchant of Venice I thought I was supposed to sympathize with Shylock and the story actually followed the villains. However, that interpretation is a stretch given the events of the Merchant of Venice. I wonder if an interpretation of the play exists where the Antisemitisic nature of the play does not. Or is antisemitism such an integral part of the play that if you took it out Merchant of Venice would be gone. I don’t have an answer. I’m curious to see what RSC does.
I personally think this article is a little silly because I have never heard of anyone demanding that we cancel Shakespeare. I think that there is something to be said about recognizing and reworking some of his more problematic works, such as Merchant of Venice, but I do not think that I have ever heard someone talk about cancelling Shakespeare. Indeed, he is still the world’s most produced playwright, by a lot, so I think that this whole argument is full of logical fallacy. I think there’s a difference between cancellation, and recognizing and being aware of biases and stereotypes present in his work, and trying to make those biases less prevalent and such. I also think it is a little silly to announce that you’re performing Shakespeare as if it is revolutionary news, considering that, again, he is the most frequently produced playwright every year. I understand that this is a marketing tactic, but to act as if your company is quirky and different for daring to do Shakespeare is crazy to me.
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