Elizabeth Freestone: 'all which it inherit shall dissolve': Ecodramaturgy and the cultural infrastructure of Shakespeare's The Tempest
6.12.2023, 10-11.30 in H 307 At the invitation of the research initiative and core topic of the Centre of Cultural Inquiry, "Transforming Infrastructure: Cultural Perspectives", Elizabeth Freestone, theatre director and climate activist, will speak about her 2023 production of Shakespeare's The Tempest for the Royal Shakespeare Company as part of a seminar on "Resetting Shakespeare". Anyone interested is cordially invited!
To re-contextualise a play is also to re-set the expectations of those involved in both making and watching a show. Through an ecodramaturgical approach to both content and form, this production of The Tempest attempted to challenge, on several fronts, some of the received cultural baggage associated with the play. By doing so, the ambition was to lever the text's potential to establish new imaginative patterns that might subvert existing cultural infrastructures. In turn, these might galvanise behaviours and responses (both within the audience and amongst the producing organisation) in the hope of creating a pathway towards an ecological transformation, both on and off stage.
For more information, see here or contact Prof. Wald:
www.rsc.org.uk/the-tempest/past-productions/elizabeth-freestone-2023-production