Synopses & Reviews
This illuminating study of The Winters Tale in performance in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, contributes to understanding the growth during that time of high critical esteem for The Winters Tale, now one of Shakespeares most frequently performed plays. Writing about performance as a richly collaborative living art, and drawing upon her original interview material unavailable elsewhere, Dunbar learns from and gives voice to the work of actors, directors, designers and other theatre professionals whose labor and interpretive discoveries have made it possible for audiences to experience the plays multiple potentialities in the theatre. The books last chapter, by Carol Chillington Rutter, contributes a richly layered and highly engaging comparative analysis of eight of the most important recent British productions of the play. Dunbar makes a significant contribution to understanding The Winters Tale which will be of great interest to scholars, teachers, and students of Shakespeare, to theatre lovers, and to all involved in productions of the play.
Synopsis
This illuminating study of The Winter's Tale in performance in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries contributes to understanding the growth during that time of high critical esteem forwhat is now one of Shakespeare's frequently performed plays. Writing about performance as a richly collaborative living art, the author learns from and gives voice to the work of actors, directors, designers and other theatre professionals whose labor and interpretive discoveries have made it possible for audiences to experience the play's multiple potentialities in the theatre.
She does this in part by citing from her interviews with directors like Trevor Nunn and Peter Hall and with actors engaged in some of the most significant twentieth-century productions of The Winter's Tale. Dunbar connects her scholarly research, including fresh use of materials in theatrical archives, to her direct experience of those productions she has able to see in performance and, at times, to see develop in rehearsal. Her in-depth analysis of selected significant twentieth-century productions, including cross-cultural productions of The Winter's Tale by the Royal Dramatic Theatre of Sweden (directed by Ingmar Bergman), and the Maly Drama Theatre of Europe, in St. Petersburg (directed by Declan Donnellan), explores how theatre artists have approached the play's most crucial theatrical and interpretive challenges. The book's last chapter, by distinguishedtheatre scholar and performance critic Carol Chillington Rutter, contributes a richly layered and highly engaging comparative analysis of eight of the most important recent British productions of the play.
Dunbar makes a significant contribution to understanding The Winter's Tale which will be of great interest to scholars, teachers, and students of Shakespeare, to theatre lovers, and to all involved in productions of the play.
Synopsis
An excellent study of the performance of one of Shakespeare's perceived 'problem plays', complete with interview material with actors and directors, an awareness of global productions and an insight to theatrical art.
About the Author
Judith Dunba is Associate Professor of English at Santa Clara University.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations * Series editors preface * Acknowledgements * Note on the Text * Introduction: ‘This wide gap of time: Theatrical issues and performance history * Granville Barkers production at the Savoy Theatre, 1912 * Postwar renewal: Peter Brooks production at the Phoenix Theatre, 1951* Trevor Nunns production with the Royal Shakespeare Company, 1969-71 * Audrey Stanleys production with the Oregon Shakespearean Festival, 1975 * Jane Howells television production for the British Broadcasting Corporation, 1980 * Peter Halls production at the National Theatre, 1988 * Reinvention and cultural translation: Ingmar Bergmans production with the Royal Dramatic Theatre of Sweden, 1994-95 * Declan Donnellans production with the Maly Drama Theatre, St. Petersburg, 1997 * ‘A world ransomed, or one destroyed: English Tales at the Millennium by Carol Chillington Rutter * Notes * Appendix * Bibliography * Index