Artful reworkings of the Bard of Avon’s works are always welcome to the literati who adore English plays. Four hundred years after his birth and Shakespearean performances continue to exert a powerful influence.
Ms. McCullough has decided to look at the beleaguered heroines of some of Shakespeare’s plays. While I was interested in hearing Juliet, Ophelia and Cordelia argue in their unique voices about their lives and what they think their endings should have been, I was a bit put out by her omissions. We know Desdemona’s there but she never speaks. Goneril and Regan are referenced often by their younger sister and they are present as well, hidden in the shadows. But they never come forward to tell what their version of Lear’s story are.
Why do we get Lavinia, the raped and maimed victim from one of Shakespeare’s earliest and most questionable plays? She can’t even speak yet she’s allowed her mute gesticulations and weird foot tapping. There is even a reference to Joan of Arc (and I admit I didn’t even realize she was in any of Shakespeare’s works). I would have liked seeing something from any of them rather than mute and ultimately murdered Lavinia.
But Ms. McCullough made her choices and, imperfect as they are, the resultant work stands as an intriguing play in its own right.
Ms. McCullough has decided to look at the beleaguered heroines of some of Shakespeare’s plays. While I was interested in hearing Juliet, Ophelia and Cordelia argue in their unique voices about their lives and what they think their endings should have been, I was a bit put out by her omissions. We know Desdemona’s there but she never speaks. Goneril and Regan are referenced often by their younger sister and they are present as well, hidden in the shadows. But they never come forward to tell what their version of Lear’s story are.
Why do we get Lavinia, the raped and maimed victim from one of Shakespeare’s earliest and most questionable plays? She can’t even speak yet she’s allowed her mute gesticulations and weird foot tapping. There is even a reference to Joan of Arc (and I admit I didn’t even realize she was in any of Shakespeare’s works). I would have liked seeing something from any of them rather than mute and ultimately murdered Lavinia.
But Ms. McCullough made her choices and, imperfect as they are, the resultant work stands as an intriguing play in its own right.