Shakespeare's Globe | The Guardian: The artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe has pushed on with playing Richard III in a summer production, but vowed not to “alter [her] physicality” following a backlash over not casting a disabled actor in the role.
The Globe was criticised after it announced that Michelle Terry would play the role of Shakespeare’s scheming king who describes himself as “deformed, unfinish’d”.
2 comments:
This was a really interesting read. I never before considered how performers with disabilities can face challenges such as this. It seems rude and disrespectful of Terry as well as the Globe to allow something like this to happen, as well as condone it. I found it ironic that Terry said that the performance would tackle ableism while the role currently seems to be ableist at its core. It doesn’t make sense at all to me why they wouldn’t cast a disabled actor in such a role, especially given the statement about ‘deformed’ bodies and souls. Casting Terry seems to me to be a poor choice both logistically and artistically. I hope that something is able to be worked out and agreed upon between Disabled Artists Alliance and the Globe. Casting is a very unique process, and I think that they failed when they chose Terry to play the role.
This was a very fascinating article to read. At first, I thought that it was just that the Globe casted a different actor, but upon learning that the person playing the role is actually the artistic director of the theater as well, it starts to get a little weird. The whole thing sort of starts to feel like Terry selfishly getting herself into the role, despite knowing about how disabled actors have recently typically been cast in the role. I am not disabled and therefore not really an authority on the subject, but I am curious how Terry plans to have her performance “unpack a text saturated with ableism” when she herself isn’t someone who’s experienced that? It seems like it will just be another performance of Richard III. It’s pretty disappointing that this casting becomes a missed opportunity for a disabled actor to be able to play major role at a major theater.
Post a Comment