Shakespeare ‘made theatre too pale, male and stale’
THE ‘disproportionate representation’ of William Shakespeare has promoted ‘white, able-bodied, heterosexual... male narratives’ in theatre, according to a taxpayer-funded study.
In an £800,000 project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, University of Roehampton researchers aimed to challenge this ‘normative trend’ with a production of Gallathea, which features characters disguised as the opposite sex.
The academics said the 16th- century comedy, by Shakespeare’s contemporary John Lyly, has had ‘almost no stage history since 1588’.
But critics have accused the council, which is principally funded by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, of promoting ‘cultural clickbait’.
Writing for the website Before Shakespeare, Andy Kesson, the project’s principal investigator, said that ‘masculinity and nationalism were crucial motivating factors in the rise of Shakespeare as the arbiter of literary greatness’ and that ‘(we) need to be much, much more suspicious’ of the Bard’s place in contemporary theatre.
Author Lionel Shriver told the Sunday Telegraph that Shakespeare would outlast ‘this dogmatic mangling’, adding: ‘His plays will continue to be enjoyed long after today’s “intersectional” performances have foreshortened into a freakish comical footnote in theatrical history.’
Comedian Andrew Doyle added: ‘There’s a very good reason why Shakespeare is performed frequently and John Lyly barely at all. Shakespeare was by far the superior playwright. Yet again, ideologues are reducing great art to mere mechanisms for the promotion of an ideology.’
Tory MP Jane Stevenson, who sits on the culture, media and sport committee, said: ‘I’m not sure reducing Gallathea to a celebration of all things woke, or knocking Shakespeare for being pale, male and stale is much more than cultural click-bait.’
The council said it ‘invests in a diverse research and innovation portfolio’ and projects are subject to ‘a rigorous peer review process by independent experts’.