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IN THE SHADOW OF GENIUS. PLAYS OF ENGLISH RENAISSANCE DRAMATISTS: TO WHOM WRITTEN, TO WHOM PERFORMED NOW

D. Khaustova

Abstract

Alexey Bartoshevich, a great Russian theatre historian and critic, often raises a question, “To whom was Hamlet written?”. This question is the starting point of the theatrical, philosophical and sociological discussion. What was the audience like then? What people tried to find in Hamlet later on – in XVIII-XX centuries? How modern theatre directors stage this play, how we see it, understand it, feel it? With each touch, each production the play gets new meanings, implications, contexts. According to Alexey Bartoshevich, Hamlet mirrors the evolution of the society, and there are times for this play and times that do not deserve it. But how about minor – younger or not – contemporaries of Shakespeare, dramatists of the English Renaissance theatre? Some of them were very talented, many – quite successful and popular. Plays of Thomas Kyd, Christopher Marlowe, George Chapman, Ben Jonson, Thomas Middleton, Cyril Tourneur, John Fletcher, John Marston et alia attracted attention of the same ‘Shakespearean’ audience, theatregoers of the times of Elizabeth I, James I, and Charles I. Tragedies and comedies of those dramatists who created plays in the shadow of genius, did survive the Puritan times though return to the stage rather seldom. In many countries, theatre critics insist that such plays remain of interest first of all to historians. Is this really the case? The Spanish Tragedy (by Thomas Kyd), The Revenger’s Tragedy (by Cyril Tourneur or Thomas Middleton), The Changeling (by Thomas Middleton), The Duchess of Malfi (by John Webster), The Woman's Prize (by John Fletcher), The Knight of the Burning Pestle (by Francis Beaumont), Tis Pity She's a Whore (by John Ford) have been staged in XX-XXI centuries not only in the United Kingdom, but in the United States, Canada, Italy, France and Russia. The list could have been longer but this article analyses first of all performances watched by the author. What are driving forces for staging these plays? What is the audience of these performances like now? What our contemporaries expect to see and what we really see, feel and understand? There are many more questions than answers, and the author (being a humble student of Professor Bartoshevich) can only offer several suggestions to those who are intrigued by the mysterious English Renaissance theatre.

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