The roared-at boys? Repertory casting and gender politics in the RSC's 2014 Swan season

This essay interrogates the loading of the “Roaring Girls” season by asking what it means to “roar” in both the early modern period and twenty-first century, unpacking the terms on which the women of these productions are empowered or undermined through their treatment by their male counterparts. Performed alongside the 2014 “Midsummer Mischief” new writing season, the plays reposition “roaring” as challenging male-centred modes of representation. Drawing on Marvin Carlson's influential work on “ghosting”, this essay addresses these questions through investigation of the practices and implications of ensemble casting. With Arden of Faversham, The Roaring Girl and The White Devil sharing a single ensemble, the iterated roles of actors across the ensemble become key to understanding the season's overall strategies for presenting and interrogating misogyny. The recycling of actors’ bodies throws into relief the individual roles of the main “roaring girls”, framing and articulating the role of mischievous disruption within the company's work

Representing "Race" : the Stakes at Issue

The fantasy of “ presence ” in the body of the performer serves more to uncover the limits of representation than undo them. That we expect otherwise is testimony to the hold of the fantasy itself, to our enormous investment in cultural representation, and, crucially, to its conflation with political power. Shakespeare’s racially homogenous stage can serve as a site from which to address the stakes of representation, especially for those who in spite, or perhaps because, of their hypervisibility, have been historically its objects and not its subjects.La représentation de la “race” et ses enjeux Le fantasme de “présence” corporelle de l’acteur sert plus à découvrir les limites de la représentation qu’à les annuler. Que nous nous attendions au contraire témoigne de l’emprise du fantasme lui-même, de l’importance de notre investissement dans la représentation culturelle et, de manière décisive, de ses relations avec le pouvoir politique. La scène shakespearienne, homogène sur un plan social, peut servir de lieu d’où nous pouvons questionner les enjeux de la représentation, principalement en ce qui concerne ceux qui, en dépit, ou peut-être, en raison de la force de leur acuité visuelle, ont été, sur un plan historique, ses objets et non ses sujets.Callaghan Dympna. Representing "Race" : the Stakes at Issue. In: Cahiers Charles V, n°24, avril 1998. Shakespeare. Préjugés et tolérance. pp. 37-45