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

Kirwan, Peter

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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 Mar 29, 2024
Journal Shakespeare
Print ISSN 1745-0918
Electronic ISSN 1745-0926
Publisher Taylor & Francis Open
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

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