Shakespearean Biofiction on the Contemporary Stage and Screen

Edel Semple, Ronan Hatfull, Mark Thornton Burnett

• Publisher: The Arden Shakespeare
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781350359208
• eBook ISBN: 9781350359215
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Film History & Criticism
• Index: Literature

This book is the first edited collection to explore Shakespeare's life as depicted on the modern stage and screen. Focusing on the years 1998-2023, it uniquely identifies a 25-year trend for depicting Shakespeare, his family and his social circle in theatre, film and television. Interrogating Shakespeare's afterlife across stage and screen media, the volume explores continuities and changes in the form since the release of Shakespeare in Love, which it positions as the progenitor of recent Shakespearean biofictions in Anglo-American culture. It traces these developments through the 21st century, from pivotal moments such as the Shakespeare 400 celebrations in 2016, up to the quatercentenary of the publication of the First Folio, whose portrait helped make the author a globally recognisable icon. The collection takes account of recent Anglo-American socio-political, cultural and literary concerns including feminism, digital media and the biopic and superhero genres. The wide variety of works discussed range from All is True and Hamnet to Upstart Crow, Bill and even The Lego Movie. Offering insights from actors, dramatists and literary and performance scholars, it considers why artists are drawn to Shakespeare as a character and how theatre and screen media mediate his status as literary genius.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Series
• Title
• Contents
• Note on contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Note on the text
• Introduction: Shakespeare and his social circle on the stage and screen, 1998–2023
• PART ONE Author
• 1 Shakespeare regrets: Redefining the heritage biopic in All Is True
• 2 ‘I’ll drown my book’: Imagining Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play
• 3 ‘Scarce . . . a blot in his papers’: Shakespearean inspiration on screen
• 4 Interview on co-writing and performing in Bill (dir. Bracewell, 2015) Laurence Rickard in conversation with Ronan Hatfull and Edel Semple
• 5 ‘The thing is, you’re a douche’: Fourth wave feminist representations of Shakespeare in Emilia and & Juliet
• PART TWO Family
• 6 Shakespeare’s dead, long live his widow! One-woman plays about Anne Hathaway
• 7 Interview on playing Sue Shakespeare in Upstart Crow (BBC, 2016–21) Helen Monks in conversation with Ronan Hatfull and Edel Semple
• 8 Father Shakespeare: Grieving for Hamnet on stage and screen
• 9 Shakespeare and son in All Is True and O’Farrell’s Hamnet
• 10 Interview on writing the play Shakespeare’s Sister (2015)
• PART THREE Theatre
• 11 ‘Not the fashion’: Imagining the formative presence of early modern women in Shakespeare’s circle
• 12 ‘That’s power’: Representations of performance in Shakespearean biofiction
• 13 Reverse engineering Shakespeare with biofiction: TNT’s Will as repertory studies criticism
• 14 Enter Burbage: The origin story of an acting superhero in Craig Pearce’s Will
• 15 ‘#Sharlowe’: Connecting Shakespeare and Marlowe in Only Lovers Left Alive, Upstart Crow and Will
• PART FOUR Afterlives
• 16 More ‘Shakespeare’ than Shakespeare: The notion of ‘Uber-Shakespeare’ in The Lego Movie
• Afterword: Global Shakespearean biofictions
• Index
• Copyright