Fiona, Phyllida and the ‘F’-Word: the theatrical practice(s) of women playing the male roles in Shakespeare

Authors

  • Stephanie Tillotson The University of Warwick
  • Stephanie A. Tillotson Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies, University of Warwick

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v1i2.92

Keywords:

Shakespeare, Theatre, Women, Cross-gender, Feminism, Reception

Abstract

This article discusses the theatrical practice of women performing traditionally male roles in Shakespeare. Whilst historically the phenomenon is nothing new, since the 1970s the practice has been particularly associated with the politics of feminism. This article proposes to examine this connection in order to explore how far the convention of casting women in the male roles of Shakespeare has been influenced by changing social, political, and cultural discourses. It will do so by considering two specific manifestations of the theatrical practice: firstly, the National Theatre’s 1995/6 Richard II directed by Deborah Warner, in which Fiona Shaw played the eponymous male character and secondly the 2012/13 all-female Julius Caesar, directed by Phyllida Lloyd for the Donmar Warehouse. Moreover, it will locate these two productions, separated by seventeen years and the turn of a century, within their specific historical, theatrical, and theoretical contexts. Through an analysis of the material conditions that gave rise to the contemporary receptions of these two productions, the objective of this article is to draw conclusions concerning the differing ways in which, through casting women in the male roles of Shakespeare, theatre practitioners have created particular theatrical conversations with their audiences.

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Author Biography

Stephanie Tillotson, The University of Warwick

Stephanie Tillotson is a part-time doctoral student in the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick. She is also the co-organizer of Sidelights on Shakespeare. Since October 2013 she has been working under the supervision of Professor Carol Rutter, researching the late twentieth and early twenty-first century theatre practice of women performing male roles in Shakespeare. Before that, Stephanie spent several years employed in television and radio, both for the BBC and in the independent sector. Always a confirmed theatre addict, however, she eventually specialized in drama for young people, working as a producer, director, writer, editor and teacher, most recently in the Theatre Studies Department at the University of Aberystwyth. A published playwright, poet and short-story writer, she continues to live and work in mid Wales.

References

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Websites:

http://www.Propeller.org.uk accessed 15 February 2014.

http://www.royalexchange.co.uk/ accessed 22 February 2014.

http://www.shakespearesgobe.com accessed 15 February 2014.

http://www.theshed.nationaltheatre.org.uk accessed 14 February 2014

Photo of Sarah Bernhardt

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Published

2014-03-30

Issue

Section

Issue 2 Themed Section: Sidelights on Shakespeare