Shakespeare in Performance

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

   PDF

2. Hamlet’s Doubles

   • Ralph Berry

   Pages 1-14

3. Doubling: Theory and Practice

   • Ralph Berry

   Pages 15-26

4. Casting the Chorus

   • Ralph Berry

   Pages 27-40

5. Casting the Crowd: Coriolanus in Performance

   • Ralph Berry

   Pages 41-55

6. Casting Hamlet: Two Traditions

   • Ralph Berry

   Pages 57-65

7. Lear’s System and Cordelia’s Aside: Leading the Audience

   • Ralph Berry

   Pages 67-81

8. Laughter in King Richard II: The Subplot of Mood

   • Ralph Berry

   Pages 83-94

9. Metamorphoses of the Audience

   • Ralph Berry

   Pages 95-103

10. Dramatis Personae

    • Ralph Berry

    Pages 105-117

11. Measure for Measure: Casting the Star

    • Ralph Berry

    Pages 119-125

12. Within the Bermuda Triangle: Reflections on Recent Tempests

    • Ralph Berry

    Pages 127-139

13. Falstaff’s Space: The Tavern as Pastoral

    • Ralph Berry

    Pages 141-154

14. Back Matter

    Pages 155-171

    PDF

These studies of Shakespeare in performance take stage history as a means of knowing the play. Half these studies deal with casting: doubling, Chorus and the crowd, the star of Hamlet and Measure for Measure. The transformations of The Tempest and Dramatis Personae are analysed. Audience control is studied in King Lear, through Cordelia's asides, in Richard II with its subversive laughter, and in Henry IV with its scenic alternation of pleasure and duty. Performance is the realization of identity.

• drama
• Hamlet
• history
• history of literature
• identity
• King Lear
• knowledge
• performance
• play
• stage
• tradition
• transformation
• triangle
• William Shakespeare

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