Much Ado About Nothing

by Findlay, Alison

• ISBN13: 9780230222601
• ISBN10: 0230222609
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-10-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Much Ado About Nothingshows the violence of desire as well as its drive towards creative plotting or matchmaking. In this Handbook, Alison Findlay examines the play's comic and tragic potential in the theatre; its attempts to harmonise love and war, attraction and repulsion. The volume: * explores the play's resonance in early performances with reference to the crisis over fast-changing fashions, gendered notions of honour, and the changing personnel of Shakespeare's company * analyzes the play from a performance point of view scene by scene, considering the interactions between spectators and actors * surveys key productions and films, including Barry Jackson's radical modernist production of 1919, the recently-rediscovered television film of Zeffirelli's 1965 National Theatre Production, and Kenneth Branagh's 1993 film version * outlines the play's critical history from the eighteenth century to the present day, with a focus on contemporary concerns such as genre hybridity, sources and intertexts, and the instability of signs and appearances.

Author Biography

ALISON FINDLAY is Professor of Renaissance Drama and Director of the Shakespeare Programme at Lancaster University, UK.

Table of Contents

General Editor's Preface
Acknowledgements
The Text and Early Performances
Commentary
Intellectual and Cultural Context
Key Productions
The Play on Screen
Critical Assessment
Further Reading
Index