Shakespeare on the Global Stage: Performance and Festivity in the Olympic Year

by Paul Prescott (Editor), Erin Sullivan (Editor)

Overview

Long held as Britain's 'national poet', Shakespeare's role in the 2012 London Cultural Olympiad confirmed his status as a global icon in the modern world. From his prominent positioning in the Olympic and Paralympic ceremonies, to his major presence in the cultural programme surrounding the Games, including the Royal Shakespeare Company's World Shakespeare Festival and the Globe's Globe to Globe Festival, Shakespeare played a major role in the way the UK presented itself to its citizens and to the world.

This collection explores the cultural forces at play in the construction, use and reception of Shakespeare during the 2012 Olympic Moment, considering what his presence says about culture, politics and identity in twenty-first century British and global life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781472520326
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	03/26/2015
Pages:	376
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Paul Prescott is Reader in English at the University of Warwick, UK.


Erin Sullivan is Lecturer and Fellow at The Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, UK.

Table of Contents

List of figures

List of contributors

Preface
Paul Prescott and Erin Sullivan

1: Shakespeare and the Dream of Olympism
Paul Prescott

2: Two Poems from the Olympic Year
Kapka Kassabova

3: Performing Shakespeare in the Olympic Year: Interviews with Three Practitioners
Frank Cottrell Boyce
Tom Bird
Tracy Irish

4: States of the Nations: Henry VI, the London Olympics and the Spectacular City
Stuart Hampton-Reeves

5: Shakespeare in the North: Regionalism, Culture and Power
Adam Hansen and Monika Smialkowska

6: Shakespeare, Spectatorship and the 'Olympic Spirit'
Stephen Purcell

7: Expert Spectatorship and Intra-Audience Relationships at Globe to Globe 2012
Rose Elfman

8: 'Mind the gap': Globalism, Postcolonialism and Making up Africa in the Cultural Olympiad
Colette Gordon

9: A Tale of Two Londons: Locating Shakespeare and Dickens in 2012
Peter Kirwan and Charlotte Mathieson

10: 1948/2012: Building Nations
Tony Howard

11: Olympic Shakespeare and the Idea of Legacy: Culture, Capital and the Global Future
Erin Sullivan

Afterword
Kathleen McLuskie

Index

Editorial Reviews

Shakespeare on the Global Stage is a timely and insightful collection… it raises crucial questions that will be central to any future attempt to bring Shakespeare, and the arts more generally, to wider audiences nationwide.” —Sonia Massai, Professor of Shakespeare Studies, King's College London, UK

From the Publisher

Shakespeare on the Global Stage is a timely and insightful collection… it raises crucial questions that will be central to any future attempt to bring Shakespeare, and the arts more generally, to wider audiences nationwide.

Sonia Massai