Shakespeare s Last Plays: The Winter s Tale to Two Noble Kinsmen

Transcription

1 Shakespeare s Last Plays: The Winter s Tale to Two Noble Kinsmen Start date 2 November 2012 End date 4 November 2012 Venue Madingley Hall Madingley Cambridge Tutor Clare Smout Course code 1213NRX037 For further information on this course, please contact To book See: or telephone Tutor biography Linda Fisher, Academic Programme Manager on Sandy Haylock, Programme Administrator on Clare Smout completed a B.A. at Oxford University and an M.A. in Shakespeare and Theatre at the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford. She is currently a doctoral student at Magdalen College, Oxford, researching brother/sister relationships in Renaissance drama. Clare has lectured for the University of Birmingham since Her other teaching includes work for the Universities of both Oxford and Cambridge as well as for many leading London drama schools and regular employment in Hong Kong. Recent publications include: Actor, Poet, Playwright, Sharer... Rival? Shakespeare and Heywood, , Early Theatre (2010); Staging the N-Town Plays: Theatre and Liturgy, with Elisabeth Dutton, ROMARD, 49 (2010); and Mariah Gale for The Routledge Companion to Actors Shakespeare, edited by John Russell Brown (2011). Clare writes regular theatre reviews for the journals Shakespeare and Cahiers Élisabéthains and contributed the RSC Performance History sections for Jonathan Bate s RSC/Macmillan editions of The Winter s Tale (2009), The Merry Wives of Windsor (2011) and Timon of Athens (2011). Clare spent 20 years in professional theatre, including work as PA to John Barton, Assistant Director to Alan Ayckbourn, and Associate Director to Howard Barker. Clare s own directing has included Measure for Measure, Much Ado, The Winter s Tale, Merry Wives and Dryden s Marriage A-La-Mode, combined with regular dramaturgical work and a career-long commitment to developing new writing from contemporary playwrights. University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education, Madingley Hall, Cambridge, CB23 8AQ

2 Course Programme: PLEASE NOTE WITH EFFECT FROM NOVEMBER 2012 DINNER WILL BE SERVED AT 7.00 PM BOTH FRIDAY AND SATURDAY EVENINGS. Friday 2 November 2012 Please plan to arrive between 4:30 and 6:30. You can meet other course members in the bar which opens at 6:15. Tea and Coffee making facilities are available in the study bedrooms pm Dinner 8.30 pm pm Introduction: Overview and Context pm Terrace bar open for informal discussion Saturday 3 November am Breakfast 9.00 am am The Winter s Tale (1) am Coffee am pm The Winter s Tale (2) and Cymbeline (1) 1.00 pm Lunch 2.00 pm Free 4.00 pm Tea 4.30 pm 6.00 pm Cymbeline (2) and The Tempest (1) 7.00 pm Dinner 8.30 pm pm The Tempest (2) pm Terrace bar open for informal discussion Sunday 4 November am Breakfast 9.00 am am The Two Noble Kinsmen (1) am Coffee am pm The Two Noble Kinsmen (2); Course Summary and Conclusion 1.00 pm Lunch The course will disperse after lunch

3 Course syllabus Aims: To enable students to achieve a deeper and more complex understanding of Shakespeare s final plays, both individually and as a group with particular reference to their themes and their position within Shakespeare s oeuvre. To enable students to discuss Shakespeare s work with deeper insight and more confidence. To enable students to develop a greater awareness of the historical and theatrical contexts to the plays studied, in particular the issue of Shakespeare s collaboration with fellow playwrights at the end of his career. Content: This course explores the final stage of Shakespeare s career, considering not only his sole-authored plays, The Winter s Tale, Cymbeline and The Tempest, but also his last surviving work, The Two Noble Kinsmen, a collaboration with John Fletcher. We will look at these plays both as individual works and as a group, considering what they have in common and how they fit into the chronology of Shakespeare s work and career. We will start by discussing briefly how far Shakespeare was influenced by the historical and theatrical context in which he was writing these plays including the effect of the King s Men s new indoor theatre, the Blackfriars, and the implications of Shakespeare s return at the end of his career to collaborative writing. We will pay considerable attention to the thematic content of the plays, examining in particular the motifs of love, rivalry, loss and reconciliation which run throughout them all, and Shakespeare s continually evolving exploration of identity, substitution and mirrored characters. Finally, we will consider Shakespeare s use of language and imagery within these plays and his experiments with structure and genre. [See also the advance preparation section below, which will give you a more detailed idea of the kinds of questions we will be exploring.] Presentation of the course: This course will be delivered using a mix of lecturing, full class discussion, small group debate and feedback, and DVD / video clips. Outcomes: As a result of the course, within the constraints of the time available, students should be able to: Demonstrate a deeper and more complex understanding of Shakespeare s final plays, both individually and as a group with particular reference to their themes and stagecraft Discuss Shakespeare s work with confidence and argue convincingly in support of their opinions Demonstrate an understanding of the position of the plays studied within Shakespeare s oeuvre Demonstrate an appreciation of the historical and theatrical context of the plays, including the issue of collaboration

4 Reading and resources list ESSENTIAL READING You need to have read and thought about all four set plays in advance of the course. (See also Advance Preparation below). Please bring copies of these plays with you. Ideally I would like you also to have read the introduction to a good modern scholarly edition of each and familiarised yourself with the issues and interpretations usually thought central to that play. I have recommended you use the Arden (Series Three) or Oxford individual editions because of their excellent introductions and detailed explanatory footnotes. However the New Cambridge and RSC/Macmillan editions are also useful in these areas. Author Title Publisher and date Shakespeare, William The Winter s Tale Arden, 2010, ed. John Pitcher OR OUP, 2008, ed. Stephen Orgel Cymbeline OUP, 2008, ed. Roger Warren [Series 3 Arden not yet in print] Fletcher, John & Shakespeare, William Wikipedia (edited version) The Tempest The Two Noble Kinsmen Biography of John Fletcher Arden, 1999 (rev. 2011), ed. Virginia Mason Vaughan & Alden T. Vaughan OR OUP, 2008 ed. Stephen Orgel Arden, 1996, ed. Lois Potter OR OUP, 2008 ed. Eugene Waith Attached to course materials (please request a print out if required) Reading and resources list STRONGLY RECOMMENDED READING Shakespeare, William Pericles OUP, 2004, ed. Roger Warren & George Wilkins Forman, Simon Diary entries on The Winter s Attached to course materials ( ) Tale and Cymbeline (please request a print out if required) Alexander, Catherine, ed. Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare s Last Plays CUP, 2009

5 Reading and resources list FURTHER READING Lyne, Raphael Shakespeare s Late Work OUP, 2007 Dutton, Richard & A Companion to Shakespeare's Works: Vol. 4 OUP, 2005 Howard, Jean E. eds (Poems, Problem Comedies, Late Plays) Lindley, David The Tempest, Shakespeare at Stratford Series Arden, 2003 Tatspaugh, Patricia The Winter s Tale, Shakespeare at Stratford Series Arden, 2001 McMullan, Gordon Shakespeare and the Idea of Late Writing CUP, 2007 McDonald, Russ Shakespeare and the Arts of Language OUP, 2001 Note Students of the Institute of Continuing Education are entitled to 20% discount on books published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) which are purchased at the Press bookshop, 1 Trinity Street, Cambridge (Mon-Sat 9am 5:30pm, Sun 11am 5pm). A letter or confirming acceptance on to a current Institute course should be taken as evidence of enrolment.

6 Productions and AV resources currently available DVD/Video Recordings available The Winter s Tale: a) RSC production, dir. Doran; b) BBC series, dir. Howell Cymbeline: Tempest: a) BBC series, dir. Moshinsky a) dir. Taymor; b) dir. Jarman; c) BBC series, dir. Gorrie. Two Noble Kinsmen: Nothing available Productions There are three major productions of The Tempest running this summer/autumn, and a London Pub Theatre production of The Two Noble Kinsmen. There are no professional productions of Cymbeline, Winter s Tale or Pericles scheduled over the coming months. The Tempest Royal Shakespeare Company. Directed by David Farr. Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 13 July - 7 October ( ). Watermill Theatre. Directed by Paul Hart. Watermill Theatre, Bagnor, 27 September 3 November ( ).

7 Advance Preparation *** IMPORTANT *** Please read all four set plays in advance of the course. You will also find it helpful to read the introduction to a good modern scholarly edition of each and familiarise yourself with the issues and interpretations usually thought central to that play. If you have the opportunity, you might like to read or refamiliarise yourself with Pericles, a play often included in this grouping. However, this is not essential. Here are some suggestions of questions to consider you read. I don t expect you to cover all of this or to turn up with sheaves of detailed notes. However, the course will be far more rewarding if you have already started focusing on issues we are going to be discussing and making connections and comparisons between the plays. General What do these plays have in common, thematically, structurally, generically or linguistically, that warrants critics treating them as a category of their own? Context. How are our views of individual plays affected by the groupings within which we consider them or the biographical context we assign to them? The idea of lateness. These plays are frequently referred to as Shakespeare s late plays. What is being implied by the idea of these as plays written at the close of a career, farewell plays? How does this affect the way we interpret them? [see Gordon McMullan s monograph or his summarising article in Cath Alexander s Cambridge Companion for detailed analysis of this.] Themes How significant are the following themes to each of the plays: love, rivalry, loss, reconciliation, restoration, revenge, forgiveness, identity? How significant are motifs such as father/daughter relationships, mirrored characters, the sea and shipwreck, substitution? Stagecraft & Structure How significant an element is the nature of the theatre(s) for which these plays were written? (From 1609 the King s Men started to use their indoor theatre, The Blackfriars, as well as the Globe and The Tempest was clearly written for this space.) How important are special effects to these plays? How do you imagine the final scene of The Winter s Tale being staged? How similar is the bed-trick in The Two Noble Kinsmen to instances in Shakespeare s earlier plays? How important is the convention of the unity of time in these plays? Genre These plays are often described as Shakespeare s Romances, rather than as comedies. Why? Language How different is Shakespeare s use of verse in the last plays from that in the earlier plays? How different is Shakespeare s use of prose in the last plays from that in the earlier plays? What distinguishes Shakespeare s verbal imagery in these plays? How important is the role of music in each of these plays?

8 Collaboration Shakespeare wrote three plays with John Fletcher towards the end of his life, Henry VIII (All is True), The Two Noble Kinsmen and the lost play Cardenio. Yet these collaborative plays are often ignored and The Tempest treated as his final play. What might be the reasons and the implications of this? Why is The Two Noble Kinsmen so rarely performed or discussed? Is it important to know which parts of TNK were written by Shakespeare and which by Fletcher? Why? How far do the themes of TNK reflect Shakespeare s concerns during his career as a whole? What other questions would it be appropriate to ask? What do YOU see as the most important or most interesting aspects of each play?