Viral Shakespeare

Performance in the Time of Pandemic

Pascale Aebischer

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781108947961
• eBook ISBN: 9781108952385
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism in Drama
• Index: Literature

This Element offers a first-person phenomenological history of watching productions of Shakespeare during the pandemic year of 2020. The first section of the Element explores how Shakespeare 'went viral' during the first lockdown of 2020 and considers how the archival recordings of Shakespeare productions made freely available by theatres across Europe and North America impacted on modes of spectatorship and viewing practices, with a particular focus on the effect of binge-watching Hamlet in lockdown. The Element's second section documents two made-for-digital productions of Shakespeare by Oxford-based Creation Theatre and Northern Irish Big Telly, two companies who became leaders in digital theatre during the pandemic. It investigates how their productions of The Tempest and Macbeth modelled new platform-specific ways of engaging with audiences and creating communities of viewing at a time when, in the UK, government policies were excluding most non-building-based theatre companies and freelancers from pandemic relief packages.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Viral Shakespeare: Performance in the Time of Pandemic
• References
• Acknowledgements