Shakespeare and the world of Slings & arrows : poetic faith in a postmodern age /
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 theater. Shakespeare scholars, however...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Montreal ; Kingston :
McGill-Queen's University Press,
[2024].
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| 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 theater. 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 ̉ 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 theater, 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. |
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| Physical Description: | xii, 232 pages ; 23 cm. Issued also in electronic format. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780228022817 0228022819 |