Special Issue on Global Shakespeares, reviews of Al-Bassam and Achour plays

Shakespeare (The British Shakespeare Association) Volume 9, Issue 3, September 2013

Special Issue on Global Shakespeares, edited by Alexander Huang

Available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rshk20/current#.UkR-NSR57rg

Video clips that accompany the articles are available on: http://globalshakespeares.mit.edu/

If interested in reading an article from the issue please contact Alex Huang (acyhuang05@gmail.com)

ARTICLES

Global Shakespeares as Methodology

Alexander C. Y. Huang
pages 273-290

Having reached a critical mass of participants, performances and the study of Shakespeare in different cultural contexts are changing how we think about globalization. The idea of global Shakespeares has caught on because of site-specific imaginations involving early modern and modern Globe theatres that aspired to perform the globe. Seeing global Shakespeares as a methodology rather than as appendages of colonialism, as political rhetorics, or as centerpieces in a display of exotic cultures situates us in a postnational space that is defined by fluid cultural locations rather than by nation-states. This framework helps us confront archival silences in the record of globalization, understand the spectral quality of citations of Shakespeare and mobile artworks, and reframe the debate about cultural exchange. Global Shakespeares as a field registers the shifting locus of anxiety between cultural particularity and universality. The special issue explores the promise and perils of political articulations of cultural difference and suggests new approaches to performances in marginalized or polyglot spaces.

Hamlet, the Heike and the Fall of Troy

Peter S. Donaldson
pages 291-303

 

Postcolonial hybridity: The making of a Bollywood Lear in London

Kinga Földváry
pages 304-312

 

Caribbean tricksters at crossroads: Davlin Thomas's Lear Ananci and Hamlet: The Eshu Experience

Giselle Rampaul
pages 313-321

 

European touring stars and the Shakespearean distinction of the Spanish actor-manager in Madrid and Latin America (1898–1936)

Juan F. Cerdá
pages 322-329

 

What's global about global Shakespeare? The case of Perttu Leppä's 8 päivää ensi-iltaan (8 Days to the Premiere)

Nely Keinänen
pages 330-338

 

 

REVIEWS

Review of Sua Incelença, Ricardo III (directed by Gabriel Villela for Clowns de Shakespeare) at Largo da Ordem, Curitiba, Brazil, 29 March 2011

Anna S. Camati & Liana C. Leão
pages 339-341

 

Review of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus (directed by Silviu Purcarete), the National Theater in Craiova, Romania, 14 March 1992

Lucian Ghita
pages 342-346

 

Review of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale (Directed by Anirudh Nair and Neel Chaudhuri for The Tadpole Repertory and Wide Aisle Productions), Zorba the Buddha Performance Space, Ghitorni, New Delhi, India, 3 March 2013

Jyotsna Singh
pages 347-349

 

Review of The Speaker's Progress (directed by Sulayman Al-Bassam), Paramount Theatre, Boston, USA, October 12-16, 2011

Margaret Litvin
pages 350-352

 

Review of La Tempestad (directed by John Mowat for the Companhia do Chapitô) at the Corral de Comedias, Almagro, Spain, 23 July 2011

Carla Della Gatta
pages 353-355

 

Review of Hamlet or Three Boys and One Girl (adapted and directed by Nikolay Georgiev and the @lma @lter Student Theatre-Laboratory) at the Theatre Hall of Sofia University, Bulgaria, 12 March 2013

Georgi Niagolov
pages 356-358

 

Review of Shakespeare and APA's Macbeth: Leila and Ben – A Bloody History (directed by Lotfi Achour) and the company's talkback at Re-making Shakespeare for the World Shakespeare Festival at the Northern Stage, Newcastle, UK, 14 July 2012

Saffron J. Walkling & Raphael Cormack
pages 359-361

 

Review of Robert Lewis' Red Hamlet (directed by Robert Lewis) for the Group Theatre, New York, October 1933

Jeffrey Butcher
pages 362-364

 

Review of Shakespeare's Othello (directed by Nikos Charalambous for the Cyprus Theatre Organization) at Latsia Municipal Theatre, Nicosia, Cyprus, 27 November 2010

Eleni Pilla
pages 365-366

 

 

 

REVIEW ARTICLE

Giving a “Local Habitation” to “Airy Nothing”: Review of the Global Shakespeares Video and Performance Archive

Haylie Brooke Swenson
pages 367-372

Merchant of Venice in Yemen

Thanks to Dr. Katherine Hennessey, we have a video clip and a lot of analysis of a March 2013 Yemeni Merchant of Venice adaptation up at the Global Shakespeares site.

For more on the production, and on the history of Shakespearean adaptations in Yemen, see her article: “Shylock in the Hadhramaut?  Adaptations of Shakespeare on the Yemeni Stage” by Katherine Hennessey, Arablit 3:5, June 2013.

How cool is this?  Thanks, Katherine!

Staged reading of Al-Bassam's Al-Hamlet Summit in NYC

Hey NYC folks! Go see the staged reading of The Al-Hamlet Summit at NYU-Gallatin, 

and/or this discussion at Columbia,

then write in (to the comments section below) and tell me what you thought.
You can find out what I thought (a few years ago) here.

Here's the NYU info:

Mar 10, 2014 | 6:30 PM-8:30 PM

A staged reading of Sulayman Al-Bassam's powerful and provocative play followed by a panel discussion.
About the Play:
A startling piece of new writing that borrows from Shakespeare’s plot to create a poetic and powerful critique of contemporary political scenarios, set in the cauldron of Middle East discontent. The familiar characters of Shakespeare’s play are delegates in a conference room in an unnamed modern Arab state on the brink of war. Having gained control of a modern Arab state, a ruthless dictator attempts a westernized experiment, in thrall to arms dealers and propped up by US dollars. Yet a catastrophic war is brewing, he is besieged by enemy neighbors from without, and a growing politicized Islam from within, and his predecessor’s son Hamlet is plotting revenge...
Cast List:
Hamlet – Hadi Tabbal*
Ophelia - Beth Pollack
Gertrude - Lameece Issaq*
Claudius - Ramsey Faragallah*
Polonius - Alok Tewari*
Laertes - Amir Darvish*
Arms Dealer - David Letwin*
U.N. Messenger - Katherine Romans
Fortinbras - Alec Seymour
Stage Directions - Kelsey Burns
Security - Charles Kennedy & Alec Seymour
Stage Manager - Laura Skolnik*
*Members of AEA

Date + Time	Mar 10, 2014 | 6:30 PM-8:30 PM
Location	Jerry H. Labowitz Theatre for the Performing Arts