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Puzzling Shakespeare: Local Reading and Its Discontents.Leah S. Marcus

In the final essay, "Balancing at Work," Thomas Clayton skillfully describes competing interests of performance and criticism. He asks questions like "When is a production not a production?" Answer: "When it's an adaptation." "What differentiates an exploitation from an alienation production?" "What is the place of lavish productions?" Answer: "For people who come to see rather than hear the plays." His examples, mostly taken from twentiethcentury performances, come from his current work on Coriolanus. Exactly how do modern directors handle the hero's death? Peter Hall's 1959 production had Coriolanus throw his sword away, allowing a "dozen spears to impale him. He is poised, now on a promontory some twelve feet above the stage, from which he topples forward, to be caught by the ankles so that he dangles, inverted, like the slaughtered Mussolini." Among other striking examples, Clayton observes dryly that "Shakespeare's own endplay as written is considerably less reductive." After describing the overemphasis on lavish productions, he closes his remarks by affirming a preference for small Shakespearean theaters, like the "The Other Place" and "The Swan" at Stratford-upon-Avon, along with similar intimate theaters in Edinburgh, London, New York and the Twin Cities. These are theaters that share the script and its enactment "in a space that makes [some vital fire] not only possible but inescapable," places where audiences can discover that "less is more." UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA L. A. Beaurline