Coduri, M; (2014) A Travelling Tale:Shakespeare on the Italian Stage. Doctoral thesis , UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

This thesis considers the transposition from page to stage of some of Shakespeare’s plays in Italy. In particular it concentrates on different approaches to Shakespeare’s texts and different ways to transform them into theatrical action.The first chapter has an introductory function, and lays the groundwork for subsequent discussion. It illustrates the encounter between the work of the English playwright and the Italian people through an overall view of the reception of Shakespeare in Italy from the first mention of his name in 1667 to Francesco De Sanctis’s critical writings in the mid-nineteenth century.The following chapters discuss how Shakespeare’s plays have been adapted for the stage by some prominent Italian actors and directors. The focus is on three periods of the history of Italian theatre. The Great Actors of the mid-nineteenth century offered stagings of Shakespeare’s plays that focused on the main character, thus depriving them of anything that did not enhance the role of the lead actor. The generation of the directors, that flourished in Italy in the mid-twentieth century, advocated a philological reading of the playtexts, after they had been so severely altered by the generation of the actors. Finally, all through the 1960s and 1970s, the experimentalists of the ‘Nuovo Teatro’ (‘New Theatre’) returned to what can be defined ‘the actor’s theatre’, and their approach veered towards very personal productions considered by many irreverent to and irrespectful of the playtexts.Combining general theoretical discussion with the close reading of some adaptations, the thesis offers an analysis of different movements in Italian productions of Shakespeare, and an argument about different versions of Shakespearian ‘authenticity’ in Italy.

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