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Jane Howell And Subverting Shakespeare: Where Do We Draw The Lines?, Linda Shenk

Linda Shenk

When Ralph Berry asks RSC director Bill Alexander to explain how a director chooses to do a Shakespearean play in a certain manner, Alexander replies: "For me, it all boils down to this: how best can I reveal this play, how best can I release my own perception of the play, my own feeling of what it's about, and what it says and why he wrote it" (Berry 178). To fulfill these goals, directors often choose to set a play in a different historical context, devise a thematic doubling scheme, and/or cut lines to emphasize a specific concept. Such decisions …