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Shakespeare & Beyond

Theater making real history

Richard II deposition scene
Richard II deposition scene
Richard II deposition scene

Richard II, act IV, scene I. Painted by M. Brown; engraved by B. Smith. London, 1801. Folger Shakespeare Library.

This is an excerpt from Yale professor Joseph Roach’s talk for the Shakespeare Anniversary Lecture Series at the Folger Shakespeare Library in October 2016. Listen to the full recording on SoundCloud.

The theater occasionally makes real history itself, materializing it for audiences by its own expressive means, especially so during an age of revolution and counter-revolution. And what age isn’t an age of that?

Consider, for instance, the consummately tactless revival of Shakespeare’s Richard II, including the harrowing and treasonous deposition scene, by the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, during the Essex Rebellion against Queen Elizabeth in 1601—and then, by Nahum Tate at the height of the Exclusion Crisis against Charles II and James in 1681. In such instances, onstage performances may excite offstage behaviors that expand scenarios beyond the confines of the theater, even as they highlight the importance of what goes on inside of it.

Such meta- or paratheatrical performances, especially those derived from Shakespeare, have entered into the practice of everyday life, as non-actors find occasion to conduct conversation and lines taken from the plays—as Jane Austen’s characters do in Mansfield Park and many people still do today—or even carry out scenes that consciously or unconsciously mimic those enacted by Shakespeare’s characters. Imprisoned before his elaborately staged and well-attended execution in 1649, King Charles I read Shakespeare’s plays for solace and perhaps a prompt: “sad stories of the death of kings.”