The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 20.0387  Friday, 17 July 2009

From:       Eric Johnson-DeBaufre <
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Date:       Thursday, 16 Jul 2009 23:06:08 -0400
Subject: 20.0381 King Lear at the Shakespeare Theatre, 
Comment:    Re: SHK 20.0381 King Lear at the Shakespeare Theatre, 
Washington, DC

I agree wholeheartedly that the recent practice of "updating" 
Shakespeare's plays has become tiresome. Personally, I think it started 
to go sour the moment that companies thought they should "update" 
Shakespeare's plays by having women play the female characters. After 
they let that cat out of the bag, it was only a short while before WOMEN 
were playing Hamlet, a piece of "updating" I think we can all agree 
proved disastrous for theater. And then with the monkeying around with 
the setting,...well, it's all too much for me. Actually, I blame the 
Bard himself. After all, couldn't he foresee what he was setting in 
motion when he wrote a play called Julius Caesar and then let everyone 
perform it in 16th century dress?!?

Cheers,
Eric Johnson-DeBaufre

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