Viral Shakespeare - Performance in the Time of Pandemic

This Element offers a first-person phenomenological history of watching productions of Shakespeare during the pandemic year of 2020. The first section of the Element explores how Shakespeare 'went viral' during the first lockdown of 2020 and considers how the archival recordings of Shakespeare productions made freely available by theatres across Europe and North America impacted on modes of spectatorship and viewing practices, with a particular focus on the effect of binge-watching Hamlet in lockdown. The Element's second section documents two made-for-digital productions of Shakespeare by Oxford-based Creation Theatre and Northern Irish Big Telly, two companies who became leaders in digital theatre during the pandemic. It investigates how their productions of The Tempest and Macbeth modelled new platform-specific ways of engaging with audiences and creating communities of viewing at a time when, in the UK, government policies were excluding most non-building-based theatre companies and freelancers from pandemic relief packages.

List of contents

Introduction; 1. Archival Obsessions; 2. Live Digital Shakespeare; Conclusion: When will this fearful slumber have an end?

About the author

Pascale Aebischer is Professor of Shakespeare and Early Modern Performance Studies at the University of Exeter.

Summary

This Element offers a first-person phenomenological history of watching productions of Shakespeare during the pandemic year of 2020. It explores how Shakespeare 'went viral' during the first lockdown of 2020.

Product details

• Authors: Pascale Aebischer, Pascale (University of Exeter) Aebischer, Aebischer Pascale
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.12.2021
• EAN: 9781108947961
• ISBN: 978-1-108-94796-1
• No. of pages: 75
• Series: Elements in Shakespeare Performance
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > English linguistics / literary studies; English, LITERARY CRITICISM / Drama, Shakespeare Studies & Criticism, Literary studies: plays and playwrights, Relating to Shakespeare / Shakespearean