Monsters and Marvels: Shakespeare Across Opera, Ballet, Dance, Puppetry, and Music in Central and Eastern Europe—and Beyond

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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-8530.28.05
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Keywords:

William Shakespeare, dance theatre, opera, ballet, musical, puppetry, transmediality

Abstract

This collectively authored position paper discusses “hybrid” Shakespeares in Central and Eastern Europe, focusing on productions that offer formal experimentation and transnational perspectives. While their contexts remain regional, they provide an insight into how Shakspeare has been mobilised regionally. The paper consists of four distinct parts, each considering Shakespeare in a hybrid form: in opera, dance and musical theatre as well as puppetry in the transnational, regional context. The general discussions of Shakespeare’s presence/appropriation in these art forms are followed by case studies that illustrate the significance of hybridity that characterises Shakespeare in the Central and Eastern European transnational context. Our brief analyses and selected case studies suggest a need for a detailed study of Shakespeare and performative arts in Central and Eastern Europe that would concentrate on the transgressive impulse these theatrical blends realised through formal experiment and artistic innovation.

 

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

Anna Cetera-Włodarczyk, University of Warsaw, Poland

is associate professor of English literature at the University of Warsaw, with a special interest in Renaissance Studies, Literary Translation and Digital Humanities. Her publications include several monographs centred on Shakespeare and translation either in theatrical context or within Polish cultural history and a number of essays on drama analysis and literary translation (CUP, Palgrave, Shakespeare, Cahiers Élisabéthains). Since 2009 she has been editing a critical series of new translations of Shakespeare (currently 6 volumes), and since 2016 managing two state-funded projects aimed at digitising Polish 19th-21st century Shakespeare translations (http://polskiszekspir.uw.edu.pl). Member of ISA, ESRA, CEESRA and Polish Shakespeare Association.

Šárka Havlíčková Kysová, Masaryk University, Czech Republic

is associate professor at Masaryk University, Department of Theatre Studies. In her research and lecturing activities, she focuses on the theory of theatre (especially from the perspective of cognitive studies), and the staging of opera (especially Czech stagings of operas by Claudio Monteverdi, Giuseppe Verdi, Richard Wagner, and Bedřich Smetana). At present she focuses on the application of Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Conceptual Blending Theory and Multimodal Metaphor Theory in the field of the analysis of opera production practice and reflections on directing operas.

Anna Kowalcze-Pawlik, University of Lodz, Poland

is assistant professor at the Department of American Studies and Mass Media at the Faculty of International and Political Studies, University of Lodz, where she teaches literary and cultural studies and works as Vice-Editor of Multicultural Shakespeare: Translation, Appropriation and Performance. Vice-president of Polish Shakespeare Society, she is active in International Shakespeare Association, European Shakespeare Research Association, Shakespeare Association of America and British Shakespeare Association. Her main fields of research are Shakespeare in translation and performance, translation theory and history, history of monstrosity and cultural history of emotions. Her most recent publications include chapters on The Tempest published by Bloomsbury and Routledge.

Ivona Mišterová, University of West Bohemia, Czech Republic

is head of the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, Czechia. Her research interests include Shakespearean adaptations for children and young adults, reception studies, and the cultural impact of British and American theatre (not only) in Czechia. She has published extensively on these topics, exploring Shakespearean translations and adaptations, as well as the performances of British and American works staged in Czech theatres during the 20th and 21st centuries. Notable publications include Anglo-American Drama on Pilsen Stages (2013) and Inter Arma non Silent Musae: English and American Drama on Czech and Moravian Stages during the Great War (2017), which provide insights into the intersection of literature, culture, and performance history.

Gabriella Reuss, Péter Pázmány Catholic University, Hungary

Ph.D., habil., is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Hungary and Associate Professor at the Catholic University Ružomberok, Slovakia. Several of her publications concern the promptbook of the earliest, 1834 restoration of the tragically ending King Lear staged by W. C. Macready. In her first monograph, Shakespeare Londonban és Pest-Budán. Színházi előadások emlékezete [Shakespeare in London and Pest-Buda. Remembering Performances] (L’Harmattan, 2017), she studied Macready’s and Gábor Egressy’s paradigm-changing performances of Lear as represented in their uniquely parallel 1838 playtext manuscripts. Besides researching William Charles Macready’s Shakespeare and opera stagings, she has been working on Sándor Hevesi’s unique Shakespeare-cycles. Her third main research interest is Shakespeare on the contemporary stage, particularly in the puppet and the puppet-and-live actor theatre.

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Published

2023-12-30

How to Cite

Cetera-Włodarczyk, A., Havlíčková Kysová, Šárka, Kowalcze-Pawlik, A., Mišterová, I., & Reuss, G. (2023). Monsters and Marvels: Shakespeare Across Opera, Ballet, Dance, Puppetry, and Music in Central and Eastern Europe—and Beyond. Multicultural Shakespeare: Translation, Appropriation and Performance, 28(43), 89–108. https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-8530.28.05

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Vol. 28 No. 43 (2023): Crossing Borders with Shakespeare since 1945: Central and Eastern European Roots and Routes

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Funding data

  • International Visegrad Fund
    Grant numbers Project no. 22210007, titled “Crossing Borders with Shakespeare since 1945: Central and Eastern European Roots and Routes.”

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