- Playfulness in Shakespearean Adaptations ed. by Marina Gerzić and Aidan Norrie
'Play' is the thing in Marina Gerzić and Aidan Norrie's Playfulness in Shakespearean Adaptations. The purpose of the collection is to highlight the importance of irreverence and play in the creation of 'new "Shakespeares"', as described in the book's abstract. From Victorian burlesque to contemporary graphic novels, this collection provides a range of material for the reader interested in Shakespearean adaptation of drama (his poems are not extensively addressed). The collection seems best suited to students or scholars new to examples of adaptation or those wanting to expand their knowledge of it.
The first section is entitled 'Page to Stage/Stage to Page'. Roberta Grandi opens with emphasizing the long history of playfully mocking Shakespearean genre and text through her exploration of three burlesques that adapt King Lear. Grandi's is unfortunately the only chapter that addresses historical representations as its main subject, although Gerzić's excellent chapter on children's editions of Richard III identifies the importance of early Shakespeare for children from Charles and Mary Lamb, Harrison S. Morris, Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch, and Henrietta Maria Bowdler. Gerzić argues that these and more contemporary editions demonstrate the flexible and complex ways of adapting even a violent Shakespearean play for young audiences and makes particular note of the effects of illustration in each edition. Chelsea L. Horne tackles Neil Gaiman's The Sandman comics that directly adapt Shakespeare as their subject. She deftly addresses the metatextual complexities of the adaptation process of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and the value of such an exercise. Between Grandi and Gerzić's chapters lies Miranda Fay Thomas's critique of Margaret Atwood's Hag-Seed. Thomas identifies how Atwood's novel 'advocates for accessible Shakespeare' (p. 48), even though the nature of her approach perhaps alienates those readers. Thomas also rightly questions the motivations of Hogarth Press for commissioning even a 'ludic' collection of Shakespearean adaptations (p. 51). This section closes with Sophie Shorland's romp through Terry Pratchett's Wyrd Sisters and its debts to Shakespeare. I must admit this chapter was a personal favourite, as Shorland provides an inspired and rich discussion of the implications of fantasy genres and audience in Pratchett's adaptation.
The next section provides invaluable information about two recent adaptation projects. The creation and success of the Shakespeare Republic web series is outlined by Sally McLean in the first chapter. As she heads up the project, McLean offers both a potted history of its genesis and a reflection on how her team's playfulness towards Shakespeare has created their best work. The second chapter discusses richard III redux, a faintly damning reimagining of questions concerning disability and representation in Richard III by playwrights Kaite O'Reilly and Phillip Zarrilli and actress Sara Beer. Their critique of previous stagings of Richard's disability extends to reflecting on the relationships between [End Page 216] the historical and Shakespearean Richards. They offer a sensitive and insightful discussion of how this can play out very negatively in casting and costuming practices. These chapters' different authorship, emphases, and insights are an excellent counterpoint to the remainder of the collection.
Sections III and IV consider televisual adaptations of Shakespeare and his context, with historical and neoliberal points of focus. For Ronan Hatfull, the Shakespearean origin stories of the film Bill (2015, made by the team at Horrible Histories), and to a lesser extent the television series Will (2017), demonstrate our cultural interests in playfully enforcing and undermining stereotypes of genius when imagining the past of an iconic figure like Shakespeare. Norrie's chapter works in a similar vein, but with relation to representing Elizabeth I. He notes that a range of films and television programmes frequently depict her fictional relationship with Shakespeare to enforce and undermine our cultural memory of her. In Section IV, Jennifer Clement discusses the cringe comedy Hamlet 2 and the cruel irony of its irrational plot of eventual success despite the odds...