Shakespeare and the world of Slings & arrows : poetic faith in a postmodern age / Gary Kuchar.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kuchar, Gary, 1974- author.

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Slings & arrows (Television program).

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Television adaptations.

Shakespeare, William.

Television adaptations--History and criticism.

Television adaptations.

Physical Description:

xii, 232 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Montreal ; Kingston ; London ; Chicago : McGill-Queen's University Press, [2024]

Summary:

"Slings & Arrows, starring Susan Coyne, Paul Gross, Don McKellar, and Mark McKinney as members of the New Burbage Theatre Festival, was heralded by television critics as one of the best shows ever produced and one of the finest depictions of life in classical theatre. Shakespeare scholars, however, have been ambivalent about the series, at times even hostile. In Shakespeare and the World of "Slings & Arrows" Gary Kuchar situates the three-season series in its cultural and intellectual contexts. More than a roman à clef about Canada's Stratford Festival, he shows, it is a privileged window onto major debates within Shakespeare studies and a drama that raises vital questions about the role of the arts in society. Kuchar reads the television show--ever fluctuating between faith and doubt in the power of drama--as an allegory of Peter Brook's widely heralded account of modern theatre, The Empty Space, mirroring Brook's distinction between holy theatre, a quasi-sacred vocation, and deadly theatre, a momentary entertainment. Combining contextualized interpretations of the series with subtle formalist readings, Kuchar explains how Slings & Arrows participates in a broader recuperation of humanist approaches to Shakespeare in contemporary scholarship. The result is a demonstration of how and why Shakespeare continues to provide not just entertainment, but equipment for living."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction

Deadly theatre and holy theatre

Poetic faith

The simulacra

Kingfisher days

The stage is all the world

The local and the typical

Mimesis and emotional realism

Sold out

Bardbiz

Being Darren Nichols

The promised end

Conclusion

Coda: John Hirsch's Tempest.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 213-225) and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Kuchar, Gary, 1974- Shakespeare and the world of Slings & arrows.

ISBN:

9780228022817

0228022819

OCLC:

1430497327