Shakespeare and Feminist Performance - Paperback / softback

How do performances of Shakespeare change the meanings of the plays In this controversial new book, Sarah Werner argues that the text of a Shakespeare play is only one of the many factors that give a performance its meaning. By focusing on The Royal Shakespeare Company, Werner demonstrates how actor training, company management and gender politics fundamentally affect both how a production is created and the interpretations it can suggest Werner concentrates particularly on The influential training methods of Cicely Berry and Patsy Rodenbur The history of the RSC Women's Grou Gale Edwards' production of The Taming of the Shre She reveals that no performance of Shakespeare is able to bring the plays to life or to realise the playwright's intentions without shaping them to mirror our own assumptions By examining the ideological implications of performance practices, this book will help all interested in Shakespeare's plays to explore what it means to study them in performance.