Shakespeare’s tragedies have been performed in the Sinophone world for over two centuries. Hamlet, Macbeth, and King Lear are three of the most frequently adapted plays. They have been re-imagined as political theatre, comedic parody, Chinese opera, avant-garde theatre, and experimental theatre in Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan. This ground-breaking anthology features the first English translations of seven influential adaptations from 1987 to 2007 across a number of traditional and modern performance genres in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Taipei. Each of the book's three sections offers a pair of two contrasting versions of each tragedy - in two distinct genres - for comparative analysis. This anthology is an indispensable tool for the teaching and research of Sinophone theatre's engagement with Western classics in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
Author(s): Alexa Alice Joubin
Series: Global Shakespeares
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 294
City: Cham
Acknowledgments
Contents
Expanded Table of Contents
Notes on Contributors
Chapter 1: Sinophone Shakespeare: A Critical Introduction
Selection Criteria
Historical Context
The Region as Method
The Sinophone World
Contrasting Approaches to the Tragedies
Conclusion: Recurring Themes
Part I: Existentialist Questions in Post-Socialist China and Post-Martial-Law Taiwan
Chapter 2: Hamlet as Political Theatre in Beijing: Hamuleite by Lin Zhaohua (1990)
Chapter 3: Hamlet as Parody in Taipei: Shamlet by Lee Kuo-hsiu 李國修 (1992 / 2008)
Prologue: Curtain Call (Taipei)
ACT I: Opening Day (Taipei)
ACT II: Rehearsal I (Taichung)
ACT III: Second Rehearsal (Taichung)
ACT IV: Rehearsal Three (Taichung)
ACT V: Performance Day (Taichung)
ACT VI: Rehearsal 4, Followed by a Public Performance (Taichung)
ACT VII: Performance Day (Tainan)
ACT VIII: Fifth Rehearsal (Taichung)
ACT IX: Fengping Theater Troupe (Kaohsiung)
ACT X: Final Performance (Kaohsiung)
Part II: Bewitched by Kunqu Opera and Avant-Garde Theatre
Chapter 4: An Operatic Macbeth in Shanghai: The Story of Bloody Hands by Huang Zuolin 黃佐臨 (1987 / 2008)
Chapter 5: A Feminist Macbeth in Tainan: The Witches’ Sonata by Lü Po-shen 呂柏伸 (2007)
Part III: Self-Identities in Traditional and Experimental Jingju Opera
Chapter 6: A Confucian King Lear in Shanghai: King Qi’s Dream 岐王夢 by Shanghai Jingju Theatre Company (1995)
Chapter 7: A Buddhist King Lear in Taipei: Lear Is Here by Wu Hsing-kuo 吳興國 (2001)
Act 1: The Play
Act 2: Playing
Act 3: A Player
Chapter 8: Coda: Theatrical Bricolage of Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, and Othello in Beijing (1986)
Act I: Hamlet
Act II. Macbeth
Act III: Lear and Othello
Act IV: Us and Them
Index
