Here’s talk about gender-blind casting (characters can be played by male or female performers, regardless of their original gender) and of a 50/50 split on casting re. gender (half of each cast should be women, as opposed to the predominantly male casting that is current)…
Women in the theatre: what next after Julius Caesar? | The Shakespeare blog
I saw the King John mentioned and Pippa Nixon, playing The Bastard (conflated with Hubert), was brilliant (and I don’t just say that because we were drama students together – believe me, if I were not impressed, I wouldn’t mention her)! In King John, cross-gender casting worked very well indeed – and it was great to see Paola Dionisotti as Cardinal Pandulph, with her strong presence and command of the stage and the language.
What do you think?
I really like, in cases of gender-blind casting when gender isn’t even presented as an issue – when there are no gestures towards a woman ‘playing a man’ or ‘playing a female version of the character’.
I feel this works better than changing ‘daughter’ to ‘son’ or ‘king’ to ‘queen’ and so forth – onstage a man can be a daughter and a woman can a king, if they’d like to, or at least those characters can. Deranging the sense and connotation of Shakespeare in particular seems to miss the point. It’s all about de-essentializing the gender of the characters and personalities onstage, of really trying to have it not occur to people what gender they’re ‘meant’ to be. The more universal and devoid of conventional gender/sex readings (women are quiet and sing all the pretty songs, men are loud and have all the bloody fights), the better.
That is very interesting. I think that audience members, on one level, will probably assign a gender, male or female, to the character regardless of how it has been cross-cast, but certainly the focus can be – as you suggest – on the character as a person rather than their gender – and as such, should play well.
Also, if the originally male character has been made clearly female, one has to be very careful to consider the changes that can make in relationships and if you want to play those or not. I recall seeing a Hamlet production with a female Polonius where, watching it, I felt as though this gender change should be explored re. relationships with both Ophelia and Claudius. What you suggest manages to avoid these issues, and is certainly worth considering.
Sometimes I have a preference for a woman ‘playing a man’, provided it is done well and is quickly forgotten, not a focus of the piece. In the end, most options will probably stand or fall on the quality of the production / acting.
I am likely to have to make these kinds of decisions for As You Like It, which I will be directing next year, so thank you for the thought-fodder!
There are a number of all-male companies performing Shakespeare, so I was pleased to come across this:
They are in US – does anyone know of any UK all-female Shakespeare companies / groups?
Hey discoverfineacting, you should check out Smooth Faced Gentlemen: http://smoothfacedgentlemen.com. Disclaimer: I help found the company, early last year.
They/we produced an award-winning Romeo & Juliet in July 2012, and are taking Titus Andronicus to Edinburgh this year. Very talented bunch, and I’m very honoured to be working with them!
Many thanks, Yaz! I had recently spotted some mention of this and been too busy to check it out at the time. Your message has acted as a great reminder.
I perform myself in plays where gender does not decide casting (am in such a Macbeth in May), and also review during the Edinburgh festivals (as well as directing As You Like It this year for the Fringe), so I shall be sure to check out Titus (Tamora is a particular favourite of mine).
All the best to the company! I am now following on various social media platforms and have signed up for the newsletter, so I look forward to reading all about your exploits.