Adaptations of Shakespeare: An Anthology of Plays from the 17th Century to the Present

by Daniel Fischlin (editor), Mark Fortier (Editor)

Shakespeare's plays have been adapted or rewritten in various, often surprising, ways since the seventeenth century. This groundbreaking anthology brings together twelve theatrical adaptations of Shakespeares work from around the world and across the centuries. The plays include
The Woman's Prize or the Tamer Tamed John Fletcher
The History of King Lear Nahum Tate
King Stephen: A Fragment of a Tragedy John Keats
The Public (El P(blico) Federico Garcia Lorca
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui Bertolt Brecht
uMabatha Welcome Msomi
Measure for Measure Charles Marowitz
Hamletmachine Heiner Müller
Lears Daughters The Womens Theatre Group & Elaine Feinstein
Desdemona: A Play About a Handkerchief Paula Vogel
This Islands Mine Philip Osment
Harlem Duet Djanet Sears
Each play is introduced by a concise, informative introduction with suggestions for further reading. The collection is prefaced by a detailed General Introduction, which offers an invaluable examination of issues related to

Genres: Plays, Adaptations

326 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2000

Reviews

[Jay Szpirs · Rating 4 out of 5]

The selected plays form an excellent survey of adaptations from different periods. The introductions are scholarly and relevant. Even when an individual play may not be in a style that you enjoy, they hold together as a series and provide a series of lenses through which to view the Bard's work.
-tate's king lear is an insult and waste of time
-the tamer tamed is a travesty against nature. It is discount-dvd theatre. Gary Busey is Petruchio.
-keat's king stephen is an interesting tease.
-The Public is the worst kind of absurdism: rapidly shifting metaphors with few or no referents. The butched-up and ballsy Juliet is a nice character but I challenge anyone on Earth to explain what the flaming heck is going on with the men in bells/leaves and the horses. This play is WHY people make fun of absurdism. Also, the connections to Shakespeare are spurious, random, and apropos of absolutely nothing.
-...Ui is great fun. less an adaptation of any one tragedy, Brecht seems more interested in applying Shakespeares conventions to Hitler's rise to power. Unlike the Public, Brechts allusions/references are grounded in his narrative and are effective compare/contrasts. Whether you agree w Brechts dialectic or not, this is the first play in this collectioon to offer an engaging story with memorable characters; I would actually be interested in seeing this play.
- uMabatha illustrates why direct adaptations are not best. Setting Macbeth in South Africa's past is an interesting premise but, unless a great deal has been lost in translation, the modern English of the text robs the story of much of its poetry and the accelerated pace replaces the sinister, creeping atmosphere of the original with abrupt directness. The introduction draws parallels between Macbeth and the Zulu chief Shaka that the text doesn't follow up. Unless the connection would be very obvious to the original audience, it is a missed opportunity. Unfortunate, especially against Ui which makes a similar parallel successfully.
-Measure for Measure: now we're talking...by reordering Shakespeare's original dialogue, Marowitz preserves the poetry while refining all comedic elements away. What's left is an uncompromising, cynical tragedy that moves with blockbuster pacing and utilizes advances in technology and staging in reverent service of the text. A jaw-dropping success.
-Hamletmachine: FIRST I SHOUT THE SUBTEXT AT THE AUDIENCE. Then I recite a metadrama where I am the actor playing Hamlet. I am careful to avoid anything that might be related to story or character. Frustrating to read and it seems like it would be awful in performance.
-Lear's Daughters: Strong and stunning. A successful retcon in that the added information/characterization recontextualizes the original work; under this reading, Lear is truly the architect of his own destruction and the source of Goneril and Reagan's evil is made real and relatable. The language is modern but evokes Shakespeare's poetry and the bare-bones staging hits the right balance of theatricality and verisimilitude. An absolute triumph.
-Desdemona: similar to Lears Daughters in that it applies a realist retcon to an Elizabethan play. The tone is irreverent, the character inversions are effective, and the plot is well crafted. As the introduction indicates, the play can be faulted for focussing on class when Othello's focus is on race although direction and casting may address this complaint. Also, I cannot imagine what implementing the 'changing invisible cameras' stage direction looks like.
-This Island's Mine: like UI, less a reimagining of a particular play than a meditation on a theme. Another similarity: Island has plot and characters that are interesting without relying on Shakespeare to prop them up. The ending is somewhat anticlimactic but I love the narration and double-casting - a Brechtian update. A piece of life in a very specific time and place with connections drawn to problems in Shakespeare's (and, therefore, the Western World's) assumptions in The Tempest. Not my favorite but honest and relatable. I'd see it if staged.
-Harlem Duet: rooted in Othello's narrative, this play weaves a sophisticated series of connections attacking notions of race as presented by Shakespeare. Simultaneously a metatheatrical exploration and retcon/restaging of Shakespeare's story (although the use of primary text is spare, it is extremely effective). Great.

[Pádraic · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've logged most of these individually as I've gone through, but in general this a great anthology. It has a wide selection -- admitting that it could never be complete -- and adds brief but informative introductions to each play. There's some minor biographical details of the author, some historical context, and then the thematic analysis, with obviously specific attention paid to the play's relationship to the Shakespearean 'original/s.' Thankfully it never drops into unnecessary academic linguistic nonsense; the bibliographies are marked to alert us to those that are "particularly accessible." And at the back there's a list of further reading. Scattered thoughts below on those plays I haven't added separately.

King Stephen, by John Keats: an intriguing fragment, poetic of course, gave me shades of little Ben Whishaw doing Richard II, but I'm unsure it'd sustain itself over five acts. Not that we'll ever know, of course.

uMabatha, by Welcome Msomi: a fairly literal transposition of Macbeth to the ancient South African tribal setting. No doubt it'd be quite something in performance, but on the page it reads like a paraphrase of the original.

Measure for Measure, by Charles Marowitz: phenomenal. Admittedly my memory of the original is shaky but god this is amazing. Comes for your innards. Bleak and bitter and offers no escape. Made me want to track down Marowitz's other adaptations and also made me a convert to his idea that there's no point to putting on these plays unless you change them, warp them, break them into something new and current.

Lear's Daughters, by Elaine Feinstein and The Women's Theatre Group: a nice exploration of why everyone is Like That in King Lear, but some rather one-note characterisation lets it down, everyone constantly forced to act in ways that don't make them seem like human beings in a story where we want more humanity rather than less.

This Island's Mine, by Philip Osment: a queer polyphonic tale in the age of Thatcher. Its insistence on having its characters frequently narrate what they're doing/feeling instead of, you know, using dialogue and action renders it stiff and impossible to relate to. Additionally, its Shakespearean connections are pretty minor, and I was confused by its inclusion here.

[Lin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Shakespeare, and I love modern theatre, so there's very little about this book I'm gonna be hating on.