On a Romantic Island: Shakespeare and Mamma mia

Jana B. Wild

doi:10.18778/2083-8530.20.11

Authors

Jana B. Wild Academy of Performing Arts Bratislava, SK

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-8530.20.11

Keywords:

Mamma mia, musical, popular culture, Shakespeare, The Tempest

Abstract

The paper concerns the blockbuster musical film Mamma mia, loosely using some of Shakespearean patterns, topoi and plots. Set on a small Greek island, idylic and exotic, the film offers a contemporary romantic story with new/reversed roles in terms of gender, parenthood, sexuality, marriage and age, pointing to a different cultural paradigm. While the Shakespearean level is recast, remixed and probably less visible, the priority is given to the utopia of the 1970s and to the question of its outcome and transformation.

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Author Biography

Jana B. Wild, Academy of Performing Arts Bratislava, SK

Jana B. Wild is professor of theatre studies at the Academy of Performing Arts (VŠMU) in Bratislava. Among her several monographs on Shakespeare in Slovak language are Shakespeare: Zooming (2017), Malé dejiny Hamleta [A short cultural history of Hamlet] (2007), Začarovaný ostrov? Shakespearova Búrka inak [An Enchanted Island? Shakespeare’s The Tempest Otherwise] (2003). She edited international collections Shakespeare in Between (2018, in English), Mirrors of/for the Times: Shakespeare in Central European Theatre (2015, in Slovak), In double Trust: Shakespeare in Central Europe (2014, in English). As visiting professor at BISLA (Bratislava School of Liberal Arts) she has launched the course Political Shakespeare (2007 and 2008). She organized several international Shakespeare conferences in Bratislava (2013, 2016, 2018, 2019) and established the platform www.shakespeare-slovakia.info. In 2017, she was elected board member of ESRA (European Shakespeare Research Association). Beyond her academic work, she is author of a book of nonsense poetry between fooling and dada entitled Mámenia a preliezačky [Teasings and Scrabbles], 2017.

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