Shakespeare, Spectatorship and the Technologies of Performance

Examining how technological developments in performance practices affect spectator experience of Shakespeare and early modern drama.

Pascale Aebischer (Author)

9781108430357, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 18 August 2022

258 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm, 0.354 kg

'… this book presents an exciting frame that could be applied to many others.' William N. West, SEL Studies in English Literature 1500–1900

Shakespeare, Spectatorship and the Technologies of Performance examines how rapid changes in performance technologies affect modes of spectatorship for early modern drama. It argues that seemingly disparate developments – such as the revival of early modern architectural and lighting technologies, digital performance technologies and the hybrid medium of theatre broadcast – are fundamentally related. How spectators experience performances is not only affected in medium-specific ways by particular technologies, but is also connected to the plays' roots in early modern performance environments. Aebischer's examples range from the use of candlelight and re-imagined early modern architecture, to set design, performance capture technologies, digital video, social media, hologram projection, biotechnologies and theatre broadcasts. This book argues that digital and analogue performance technologies alike activate modes of ethical spectatorship, requiring audiences to adopt an ethical standpoint as they decide how to look, where to look, what medium to look through, and how to take responsibility for looking.

Introduction. Shakespeare, spectatorship and technologies of performance
Part I. Candlelight and Architecture at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse: 1. Dominic Dromgoole's The Changeling (2015): social division and anamorphic vision
2. Dominic Dromgoole's The Tempest (2016): labour, technology and the gender of theatrical magic
Part II. Digital Technologies and Early Modern Drama at the National Theatre and the RSC: 3. Stanislavski in the closet: Joe Hill-Gibbins' Edward II (National Theatre, 2013)
4. 'Tech-enabled' theatre at the RSC: digital performance and Gregory Doran's Tempest (RSC, 2016)
Part III. 'Invisible' Technology and 'Liveness' in Digital Theatre Broadcasting: 5. Hamlet in parts: Robin Lough's RSC live cinema broadcast of Simon Godwin's Hamlet (8 June 2016)
6. Offstage dynamics and the virtual public sphere in Cheek by Jowl's live stream of Measure for Measure (2015)
Concluding most obscenely: offstage technophelias.

Subject Areas: Shakespeare studies & criticism [DSGS], Shakespeare plays [DDS], Literature & literary studies [D], Film production: technical & background skills [APFX], Films, cinema [APF]