Hamlet (Un-)Masked: SPAC’s Hamlet under COVID-19 Restrictions

Autor

  • Tomoka Tsukamoto International Association of Theatre Critics (IATC), Japan
  • Ted Motohashi Tokyo University of Economics, Japan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-8530.30.03

Słowa kluczowe:

Hamlet, COVID-19 pandemic, sisterhood, orality and aurality, historical temporalities, Embracing Defeat

Abstrakt

One of the reasons why Shakespeare’s Hamlet, as a play representing the essential problematics of Western Modernity, is still relevant today, is that it contains the cultural dynamics that ranges over issues around colonialism, patriarchy, and individual identities, all of which have been causes and consequences of the Western Modernity. More specifically, in the current context of the declining Western hegemony, symbolized by regional military conflicts and environmental degradation, among other crises, the urgency to freshly produce and interpret this play seems to be increasing. This essay attempts to question the significance of staging Hamlet today by examining Satoshi Miyagi’s version of the play at the Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC) in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, and through its analysis, we aim to reflect how Hamlet, while characterizing Western Modernity, harbors the potential to critique its essence.

Biogramy autorów

  • Tomoka Tsukamoto - International Association of Theatre Critics (IATC), Japan

    Tomoka Tsukamoto is a theatre critic and a member of IATC (International Association of Theatre Critics). She received her MA in Drama Studies from Nihon University in 1996. Her publications include a book on Miyagi Satoshi’s theatre, and most recently an essay on Miyagi’s works, “Gender, Ecology, and Theatre of Catastrophe: The Apocalyptic Vision and the Deconstruction of Western Modernity in Satoshi Miyagi’s Demon Lake,” Critical Stages 26 (2022).

  • Ted Motohashi - Tokyo University of Economics, Japan

    Ted Motohashi is Professor of Cultural Studies at the Tokyo University of Economics. He received his D.Phil. in Literature from the University of York, UK. His publications include several books on drama, cultural and postcolonial studies, and most recently he published ‘“Our Perdita is found’: The Politics of Trust and Risk in The Winter’s Tale Directed by Satoshi Miyagi” in Shakespeare and the Political: Elizabethan Politics and Asian Exigencies (Bloomsbury, 2024). He is a leading translator into Japanese of works by Homi Bhabha, Gayatri Spivak, Rey Chow, Judith Butler, Noam Chomsky and others.

Bibliografia

Bulow, Megan. Euphoria. https://www.shazam.com/song/1457759950/euphoria Accessed 10 June 2024.

Dower, John. Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II. New York: Norton & Company, 1999.

Euripides. The Trojan Women. Trans. Ian Johnston. https://johnstoniatexts.x10host.com/euripides/womenoftroy.pdf Accessed 29 February 2024.

Miyagi, Satoshi. “That is the question,” Theatre Culture, SPAC Autumn~Spring Season, 2020-2021 #3.

Motohashi, Tetsuya and Tomoka Tsukamoto. The Theater of Miyagi Satoshi. Tokyo, Seikyusha, 2016.

Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Ed. Harold Jenkins. London and New York: Methuen, 1982.

Pobrania

Opublikowane

2024-12-30

Numer

Tom 30 Nr 45 (2024): Thematic Volume: Local / Global Shakespeare

Dział

Articles

Licencja

Creative Commons License

Utwór dostępny jest na licencji Creative Commons Uznanie autorstwa – Użycie niekomercyjne – Bez utworów zależnych 4.0 Międzynarodowe.

Jak cytować

Tsukamoto, Tomoka, and Ted Motohashi. 2024. “Hamlet (Un-)Masked: SPAC’s Hamlet under COVID-19 Restrictions”. Multicultural Shakespeare: Translation, Appropriation and Performance 30 (45): 37-56. https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-8530.30.03.
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