Drew Lichtenberg, Who’s Afraid of William Shakespeare? NYTimes, Oct. 21, 2024.
How real is this Shakespeare shrinkage? American Theatre magazine, which collects data from more than 500 theaters, publishes a list of the most performed plays each season. In 2023-24, there were 40 productions of Shakespeare’s plays. There were 52 in 2022-23 and 96 in 2018-19. Over the past five years, Shakespeare’s presence on American stages has fallen a staggering 58 percent. At many formerly Shakespeare-only theaters, the production of the Bard’s plays has dropped to as low as less than 20 percent of the repertory.
Why might American theaters be running away from Shakespeare? [...]
Over the past 10 years, as American politics and culture have grown more contentious, Shakespeare has become increasingly politicized. In 2017, the Public Theater’s Delacorte production of “Julius Caesar” depicted the assassination of a Donald Trump-like Caesar. The production elicited protests from Trump supporters, and corporate sponsors pulled their funding. Shakespeare is also under assault from the progressive left. In July 2020, the theater activist collective “We See You, White American Theater” turned the industry upside down with demands for a “bare minimum of 50 percent BIPOC representation in programming and personnel,” referring to Black, Indigenous and people of color. Though Shakespeare’s name went unmentioned, his work remained the white, male, European elephant in the room. [...]
Given contemporary political divisions, when issues such as a woman’s right to control her own body, the legacy of colonialism and anti-Black racism dominate headlines, theater producers may well be repeating historical patterns. There have been notably few productions in recent years of plays such as, “The Taming of the Shrew,” “The Tempest” or “Othello.” They may well hit too close to home.
Hmmmm.... Shakespeare has long served as something of a focal point or Schelling point in the (Western) literary system, a common point of reference. Is his work being displaced from that role? Note that Lichtenberg points out, “There is a long history of theaters running from Shakespeare during times of political division or uncertainty.” Still, where does this process go? What if there is no restoration to the center? Will Shakespeare be replaced? By whom? Or is the system transforming or even dissolving?
I note that Lichtenberg's article seems to be about professional performances in America. What about performances in secondary schools, colleges and universities? What about performances in England, all of Britain, Western Europe, the world?
