Saw that you had a link to Kathryn Hunter’s R3, which reminded me of this fantastic production of Richard III starring Seana McKenna. Here is a short film which juxtaposes Ms McKenna’s transformation from woman to man with another production that was on that season, Michel Tremblay’s Hosanna (the protagonist is a drag queen emulating Liz Taylor’s Cleopatra).
This link goes to my blog, wherein one finds another video regarding this production’s concept, with a complete transcript.
There are a couple of great Canadian plays which deal with gender, homosexuality and Shakespeare. The first is Elizabeth Rex, and the second is Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)
Elizabeth Rex by Timothy Findlay deals with gender roles in Shakespeare’s time- Queen Elizabeth I is a woman who is fulfilling a man’s duty, and Ned Lowenscroft is a gay actor in Shakespeare’s troupe who specialises in women’s roles. He is dying, and she has condemned her lover to death.
In the foreground sits an older woman wearing a bright red wig and stiff white gown with a large neck ruff. Her accoutrements are bedecked with lace and pearls, and her face is heavily made up with white base and red spots of blush and lipstick. She is striking a dramatic pose, and looks to her right. This is Diane D’Aquila as Elizabeth the First. By her lap is a glowing lantern with a small candle inside. This is a DVD cover- the text on it reads- Opening Night: Showcase for the Performing Arts: Elizabeth Rex.
Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) by Ann-Marie Macdonald follows the adventures of a would-be university professor through the texts of Othello and Romeo and Juliet. Compared to Elizabeth Rex it is very lighthearted, and has a lot of gay hijinx, in every sense that phrase can be taken.
The background is an iconic shot of Shakespeare in blue wash. His eyes and mouth are replaced by what look like magazine cut-outs- His left eye is replaced by a white woman’s blue eye, and his right eye is replaced by what looks like an Impressionist rendering of an eye. His mouth is replaced by a white woman’s made-up red lips. On the bottom of the image is the cut-out of a hand holding a cigarette, done in black and white. The text of this cover reads- From the author of Fall On Your Knees: Winner of the Governer General’s Award for Drama: Ann-Marie Macdonald: Goodnight Desdemona: (Good Morning Juliet)
These are great plays. I encourage anyone who’s into Queered Shakespeare to check them out.
Submitted by bouzingo-canadian. Thank you!
![[Two male actors, one in Elizabethan-era men’s costume, the other in a corseted blue dress, from a production of The Tempest. They both have short hair, and neither is wearing make-up. The man playing the male character is standing and the man playing the female character is sitting, on the other side of a painted column. They are gazing lovingly at each other.]
The theatre company is The Lord Chamberlain’s Men—an English, all-male touring group named after the playing company for which Shakespeare worked for most of his career. Their productions of cross-dressing plays are made infinitely queerer by having male actors playing female characters who pretend to be men—a dramatic conceit that the plays were written for in the first place.
(Submitted by epicenenineteen.)](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lx4ik1DyNA1qgb8u8o1_400.jpg "[Two male actors, one in Elizabethan-era men’s costume, the other in a corseted blue dress, from a production of The Tempest. They both have short hair, and neither is wearing make-up. The man playing the male character is standing and the man playing the female character is sitting, on the other side of a painted column. They are gazing lovingly at each other.]
The theatre company is The Lord Chamberlain’s Men—an English, all-male touring group named after the playing company for which Shakespeare worked for most of his career. Their productions of cross-dressing plays are made infinitely queerer by having male actors playing female characters who pretend to be men—a dramatic conceit that the plays were written for in the first place.
(Submitted by epicenenineteen.)")
![Kathryn Hunter as Richard of Gloucester seducing Yolande Vasquel’s Lady Anne in an all-female production of Richard III.
[Image description: Close-up shot of two women, one with loose shoulder-length dark hair and in black Renaissance male attire, wearing little to no makeup, leaning seductively toward the other, who wears a long dark veil over carefully dressed black hair and a low-cut black and silver dress along with a string of pearls and obvious makeup. The woman in traditionally female attire looks distressed.]
(Submitted by meganphntmgrl.)](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lm3f6pCXma1qgb8u8o1_500.jpg "Kathryn Hunter as Richard of Gloucester seducing Yolande Vasquel’s Lady Anne in an all-female production of Richard III.
[Image description: Close-up shot of two women, one with loose shoulder-length dark hair and in black Renaissance male attire, wearing little to no makeup, leaning seductively toward the other, who wears a long dark veil over carefully dressed black hair and a low-cut black and silver dress along with a string of pearls and obvious makeup. The woman in traditionally female attire looks distressed.]
(Submitted by meganphntmgrl.)")
![[The spirit Ariel descends on the stage. Ariel is portrayed by a very androgynous woman in swirling blue body suit, the suit almost giving her the appearance of sexlessness; she has blue makeup covering her exposed skin and her hair is coloured a glittery blue and styled up into a short fauxhawk. She wears a harness with enormous feathered blue wings on her back.]
Julyana Soelistyo as Ariel in the Stratford Shakespeare Festival’s 2010 production of The Tempest. Soelistyo is a 4’10 Indonesian-American actress and the first woman to portray Ariel on the Stratford stage. She had an additional eleven hours of training outside rehearsals in order to learn how to carry out the acrobatic moves required of her for this production.
There are only a very few points in The Tempest where Ariel is given gendered pronouns. At all other times, Ariel is referred to as “spirit” or similar appellations. In the Stratford production, Ariel’s pronouns were given as “she” and “her,” but they could very well have been masculine or androgynous.
For more about Julyana Soelistyo’s portrayal of Ariel, check out this article.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lflnix9X9E1qgb8u8o1_500.jpg "[The spirit Ariel descends on the stage. Ariel is portrayed by a very androgynous woman in swirling blue body suit, the suit almost giving her the appearance of sexlessness; she has blue makeup covering her exposed skin and her hair is coloured a glittery blue and styled up into a short fauxhawk. She wears a harness with enormous feathered blue wings on her back.]
Julyana Soelistyo as Ariel in the Stratford Shakespeare Festival’s 2010 production of The Tempest. Soelistyo is a 4’10 Indonesian-American actress and the first woman to portray Ariel on the Stratford stage. She had an additional eleven hours of training outside rehearsals in order to learn how to carry out the acrobatic moves required of her for this production.
There are only a very few points in The Tempest where Ariel is given gendered pronouns. At all other times, Ariel is referred to as “spirit” or similar appellations. In the Stratford production, Ariel’s pronouns were given as “she” and “her,” but they could very well have been masculine or androgynous.
For more about Julyana Soelistyo’s portrayal of Ariel, check out this article.")
