Shakespeare and the Power of Performance

This book demonstrates the artful means by which Shakespeare responded to the competing claims of acting and writing in the Elizabethan era.

Bridging the gap between today's page- and stage-centred interpretations of Shakespeare's works, Weimann and Bruster explore how the playwright responded to the competing claims of acting and writing in the Elizabethan era. Focusing on the trio of clown, fool, and cross-dressed boy actor, they demonstrate how Shakespeare explored issues of performance.Focusing on the practical means and media of Shakespeare's stage, this study envisions horizons for his achievement in the theatre. Bridging the gap between today's page- and stage-centred interpretations, two renowned Shakespeareans demonstrate the artful means by which Shakespeare responded to the competing claims of acting and writing in the Elizabethan era. They examine how the playwright explored issues of performance through the resonant trio of clown, fool and cross-dressed boy actor. Like this trio, his deepest and most captivating characters often attain their power through the highly performative mode of 'personation' - through playing the character as an open secret. Surveying the whole of the playwright's career in the theatre, Shakespeare and the Power of Performance offers not only compelling ways of approaching the relation of performance and print in Shakespeare's works, but also new models for understanding dramatic character itself.