For Monday: Dusinberre,
“Gender and Performance in Antony and Cleopatra” (pp. 227-245) and
Rutter, “Shadowing Cleopatra” (pp.248-260)
REMEMBER to use at least
two of the 4 essays we’ve read as sources in your paper. They can help you see
ideas you may have missed about each character, and/or can offer support for
your own readings. You don’t have to understand or follow the entire essay to
get something useful from it: like a poem, take it line by line and try to see
how each writer is illuminating Shakespeare’s text.
Answer TWO of the
following...
Q1: In Rutter’s essay, she
examines the RSC ’s acrhive of photos from previous productions of Antony
and Cleopatra and talks of a “politics of performance” (249). What does
this mean? How can a theatrical performance of a 500 year-old work be
“political” or informed by the time of its production (the 1950’s, for
example)? How does this affect what
Shakespeare we see—or don’t see? Can politics obscure the text?
Q2: Also according to
Rutter’s essay, ethnicity isn’t just a matter of skin color or history: it
becomes ethically symbolic. A “white” Cleopatra means something that a “black”
Cleopatra doesn’t. Based on this, why might Shakespeare have stressed Cleopatra’s
“darkness,” and why did productions before 1990 shy away from it, giving us one
white Cleopatra after another (though with black slaves—whether authentic or
painted)?
Q3: In Duisinberre’s
essay, she quotes a negative review of the Vivian Leigh/Laurence Olivier
production of Antony and Cleopatra by Kenneth Tyanan. Based on his
objections, Duisinberre asks, “Would Tynan have minded Leigh’s dominance as
Cleopatra over Olivier as Antony
Q4: Duisinberre makes an
astonishing connection by considering the date of the play (1608) and the
recent death of Elizabeth I (1603). How might Cleopatra be based on Elizabeth
herself? How might audiences have seen or suspected this? How might that change
the way we think about or perform Cleopatra?
Q1: I really understood what Rutter was talking about when she brought up politics concerning Cleopatra. When these plays were done in the 1950s, the civil rights were big issues in America. For a production to have a black woman as the most dominate and main character would have been absurd for this day in age. In the '50s, black people were supposed to be servers and only servers to the white people. Yes, slavery was illegal, but segregation was still a big issue and that's why people were so afraid to follow Shakespeare in making Cleopatra a black woman. It was just unheard of in that day.
ReplyDeleteQ4: I strongly believe that Cleopatra's stepping stones are the personality traits of Elizabeth I. The Queen was a remarkable leader as a woman, and she showed no mercy when it came to being in control and protecting her country. Cleopatra was the same way. As we think about the depths of Cleopatra portraying a late Elizabeth I, I would assume that we would not think of her as weak and little minded as she comes off as. Cleopatra is a strong and intelligent woman, just as Elizabeth I. I have no doubt that Cleopatra was based off of Elizabeth I. Why wouldn't she be?
-Jessica Johnson
Q2: Rutter explains that white identity and black identity are key features. The white identity is "a civilized body, a rational, ordered body..." while the black identity is "Eastern: loose, sensuous, irrational, primitive..." (page 257). Shakespeare, in my opinion, stressed Cleopatra's "blackness" because he wanted an additional separation between Antony and Cleopatra. He is a representation of the West; she is a representation of the East. It creates a conflict beyond politics. It is deeply embedded in long-held beliefs.
ReplyDeleteQ3: Antony and Cleopatra is filled with an ever present white male anxiety. This same anxiety continues when the play is acted out. Dusinberre states: "the sensuality of Shakespeare's heroine blatantly contradicted notions of social respectability..." (242). This line highlights an anxiety of a real woman expressing the sensuality of Cleopatra on stage. It is one thing for a "woman" ruler to be staged as powerful. It is quite another for a woman to take the stage and radiate that power.
q3. I understand that Dusinberre has pointed out the debate of who the dominant character is in Antony and Cleopatra. She seems to think Cleopatra is the more significant one because she must be played well. Antony doesn't have to be played well to show that he's a man with his own interests in mind and considerably stupid, but Cleopatra must have the attention of the audience. If a woman played her part it would just give the notion that women actually could be leaders and be dominant figures in society and that was intimidating to the men.
ReplyDeleteq4. on page 232 it is said that audiences would've noticed the gender issues in real-life being centered around Elizabeth I. Dusinberre said "Elizabeth I fictionalized her own body so relentlessly, so that it's manifest ageing and incapacity for child-bearing bore no relation to the narratives she continued to spin around her putative future as a marriageable woman capable of producing an heir even beyond the age of fifty," and Charmain's comment toward the Soothsayer, "Let me have a child at fifty, to who Herod of Jewry may do homage," and finally Elizabeth's godson wrote "to make the world thinke she should have children of her owne, she entertained till she was fiftye yeares of age mentions of marriage" all bring forth a common theme and this might connect the idea that Shakespeare used her as an inspiration. I certainly think so, anyway, and perhaps her ability to be such a strong woman figure inspired Shakespeare when he created Cleopatra's character.
Q1: I agree with Jessica, in saying there was a large civil rights issue going on during the 1950’s, which leads to why they chose to not use an African American woman to play the role. To have her as the main role would be a political statement in the eyes of media and would have caused a lot of controversy. Even doing this action today would cause some stir. By having the correct role play Cleopatra it would have made a much larger statement than if a white woman played her, or back in Shakespeare’s time, if a boy played it. Now, it wouldn’t seem so shocking, as this is how the character was designed initially, however would still be recognized in the media.
ReplyDeleteQ3: Antony and Cleopatra was cast with an all-white male cast. If a woman were to actually embody stereotypes that were against common place in society then it would have cause controversy. It is one thing for someone to envision an idea in their head (a woman being a ruler and being presented as having power) than to actually see it before your eyes. It would’ve given a message that women are capable of doing so, going against the politics of the time. Since it was being played by a boy, the audience is constantly reminded that it’s not really a woman who is acting out these characteristics.
Casady Burns