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

Kirwan, Peter

Abstract

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.

Citation

Kirwan, P. (2015). The roared-at boys? Repertory casting and gender politics in the RSC's 2014 Swan season. Shakespeare, 11(3), https://doi.org/10.1080/17450918.2015.1048277

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 30, 2015
• Publication Date: Aug 17, 2015
• Deposit Date: Nov 19, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 19, 2015
• Journal: Shakespeare
• Print ISSN: 1745-0918
• Electronic ISSN: 1745-0926
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 11
• Issue: 3
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17450918.2015.1048277
• Keywords: The Roaring Girl, ; The White Devil, ; Arden of Faversham, Ensemble, Repertory, Feminism, Performance; Royal Shakespeare Company
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/758862
• Publisher URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17450918.2015.1048277
• Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Shakespeare on 17/08/2015, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17450918.2015.1048277