Early Modern Tragedy, Gender and Performance, 1984-2000: The Destined Livery [Hardcover]

Using nine recent theatrical and cinematic productions as case studies, it considers the productive contradictions and tensions that occur when contemporary actors perform the gender norms of previous cultures. It will be of interest to theatre practitioners as well as to students of early modern drama, of performance, and of gender studies.List of Figures Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction: The Destined Livery? PART ONE: REALISM AND REINSCRIPTION What We Are, But Not What We May Be: The 'Feminist' Ophelia and the Reproduction of Gender An Actor in the Main of All: Individual and Relational Selves in The Duchess of Malfi The Natural Father and the Imaginary Daughter: Patriarchy as Realism and Representation in Titus PART TWO: PERFORMANCE AND PERFORMATIVITY 'Let Me Forget Myself': What a Queen is Good For in Edward II Death and the Married Maiden: Gender Reproduction as Destruction in The Broken Heart Tricked Like a Bride: A New Traffic in A Woman Killed with Kindness Conclusion: Cultural Drag, or, Hamlet and Ophelia Redux Appendix: Casts, Production Teams, and Opening Dates of Productions Discussed Bibliography Index Index

'This sophisticated yet very readable study explores the impact of debates about gender on recent interpretations of early modern tragedy, on stage and celluloid. Roberta Barker uses her specialist knowledge of Renaissance culture and expertise in feminist theory to analyse how challenges to conventional gender roles have shaped a diverse range of key productions, from RSC stagings of The Duchess of Malfi and other Jacobean tragedies to Derek Jarman's Edward II . In the process, she presents a compelling new perspective on the demands of late twentieth-century theatre- or film-going that charts the different ways in which such productions appeal to the politically engaged spectator. Barker also demonstrates how these dramatic reengagements with early modern culture allude repeatedly to the disturbing fluidity of identity clĂ+