This astute book examines the cultural implications of reactions to contemporary performances in which Richard II, Lear, Prospero, Bottom, Richard III, Petruchio, and Benedick were played by women. Elizabeth Klett argues that the critical uproar in the British press provoked by these performances signals a deep-seated anxiety about the status of Shakespeare within British culture. By dismissing, mocking, or railing against these women, reviewers inadvertently demonstrate the power of these productions to disrupt a series of established forms: mimetic theater, normative gender identity, Shakespearean authority, and English national identity. This book discusses the ways these women’s performances are changing the British theater, inviting their audiences to think differently about Shakespeare, their nation, and themselves.
