Popular and Populist Shakespearean Transcreations in Central and Eastern Europe

Nicoleta Cinpoeş; Kornélia Deres; Jacek Fabiszak; Kinga Földváry; Veronika Schandl

doi:10.18778/2083-8530.28.04

Authors

Nicoleta Cinpoeş University of Worcester, England
Kornélia Deres ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5339-8855
Jacek Fabiszak Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3369-091X
Kinga Földváry Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Hungary https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9147-0221
Veronika Schandl Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Hungary https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3888-0392

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-8530.28.04

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Keywords:

populism, popular(ity), mainstream, Shakespeare, postwar theatre, cabaret, burlesque, experimental theatre

Abstract

The article discusses the variety of ways in which the terms “popular” or “populist” could be associated with postwar Shakespearean transcreations in the Central and Eastern European region, pointing out how performers and adaptors challenged the canonical, highbrow status of Shakespeare and used his oeuvre as raw material in experimental forms and genres. Following a discussion on the variety of socio-historical contexts which inspired noteworthy popular and/or populist reworkings in several Central and Eastern European countries, the article takes a more in-depth look at a few specific comic genres, particularly the burlesque and the cabaret in a theoretical framework, and concludes by examining post-1989 experimental theatre practices.

The publication of the article was supported by the International Visegrad Fund, project no. 22210007, titled “Crossing Borders with Shakespeare since 1945: Central and Eastern European Roots and Routes.” The project is co-financed by the Governments of the Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants. The mission of the Fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.

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Author Biographies

Nicoleta Cinpoeş, University of Worcester, England

is professor of Shakespeare Studies at the University of Worcester, UK, where she teaches graduate and postgraduate courses in Shakespeare on the page, the stage, the screen, in festivals and in the digital world. She is particularly interested in reviewing as critical practice, Shakespeare festivalling, Shakespeare as resistance in totalitarian regimes, Shakespeare and national identity, and the promotion of Shakespeare transcreations from the non-English speaking world. Her current research focuses on the socio-cultural role of Shakespeare (in) Festivals in Europe—and she co-edited Shakespeare on European Festival Stages (Bloomsbury, 2022). Her work has appeared in numerous edited collections and journals, from Shakespeare Bulletin, SEDERI, Cahiers Elisabethains, to Theatralia, NTQ and MSA in English, as well as in Romanian and Polish publications. She has worked with Shakespeare festivals—in Romania and Poland—for almost two decades and convenes the ESRA Shakespeare in Performance Seminar at the International Shakespeare Festival, Craiova since 2010. She is currently advising on the launch of two new SHakespeare Festivals: Ivano Frankivsk, Ukraine, June 2024, and Chisinau, Moldova, September 2024. She sits on the ESRA: European Shakespeare Research Association Board, re-elected in 2021 for her second and final term.

Kornélia Deres, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary

is assistant professor at the Department of Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies at ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. She was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Institute of Media Culture and Theatre at the University of Cologne, the Junior Core Fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study at Central European University, and the Bolyai Research Fellowship by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. She is author of two books: published in 2016, Képkalapács [Hammer for Images] focused on contemporary intermedial theatre practices in Europe and elsewhere, while Besúgó Rómeó, meglékelt Yorick [Informant Romeo, Leaked Yorick], published in 2022, dealt with the interrelations of archives and performance practices. She is co-editor of five collections of essays. Her articles were published in New Theatre Quarterly, Theatre Research International, Global Performance Studies, and Theatralia. She is also a poet, having published three volumes.

Jacek Fabiszak, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland

teaches theatre history, drama in English, and Shakespeare at the Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland. He has published on English Renaissance theatre and drama and their stage, televisual and filmic transpositions (Polish Televised Shakespeares). He also wrote on Christopher Marlowe, both on his plays (focusing on imagery) and their screen versions (especially Edward II). He guest co-edited (with Ewa Kębłowska-Ławniczak) a special issue of Journal of Adaptation in Film and Performance (Vol. 14, No. 1, 2021). He is head of the Department of Studies in Culture at the Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan.

Kinga Földváry, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Hungary

is associate professor at the Institute of English and American Studies at Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Hungary. Her main research interests include problems of genre in film adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays, twentieth and twenty-first century British literature, and theories of visual and popular culture. She has published widely in journals and essay collections; she is the author of Cowboy Hamlets and Zombie Romeos: Shakespeare in Genre Film (MUP, 2020). Currently she is working on a comprehensive survey of Hungarian Shakespeare film adaptations, supported by the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFI-142603).

Veronika Schandl, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Hungary

is an associate professor at Pázmány Péter Catholic University in Hungary. Her research is centred on Shakespeare in performance, specialising in Socialist, politicised productions of Shakespeare in Eastern-Europe. Her book, Socialist Shakespeare Productions in Kádár-Regime Hungary: Shakespeare Behind the Iron Curtain was published in 2009. Currently she is writing a monograph on Hungarian director, Tamás Major’s Shakespeare directions, and is working on Shakespeare burlesques and theatrical nostalgia.

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