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Shakespeare & Beyond

Speaking what we feel: Shakespeare’s plague plays

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Austin Tichenor

is the co-artistic director of the Reduced Shakespeare Company; a writing and acting coach at The Shakespeareance; the co-author of ten stage comedies, including William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (abridged) and The Comedy of Hamlet! (a prequel); the co-creator of the illustrated children’s books Pop-Up Shakespeare and Daisy, the Littlest Zombie; a contributor to The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Global Shakespeare and Shakespearean Biofiction on the Contemporary Stage and Screen (from Arden Shakespeare); and the host of the world’s oldest and longest-running theater podcast, the Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast. — View all posts by Austin Tichenor

Comments

This article is severely lacking in one way: it ignores the one play which truly is about the plague in the Shakespeare Canon, Romeo and Juliet. When I teach Romeo and Juliet I emphasize two things. First, I point out that it is structured like a comedy, and then somehow ends up as a tragedy at the end. The second thing I emphasize is that the way it becomes a tragedy is the plague gets involved. Friar John wanders into a plague house and is quarantined, and as a result Paris, Romeo, and Juliet all die. Add it to Tybalt and Mercutio this makes the flower of Verona nobility suddenly snuffed out in an instant, just as though the plague hit. And in fact we know that it was just outside the city walls all the time. Romeo and Juliet is more of plague play than anything else Shakespeare wrote.

Mike cramer — August 28, 2021

Thought-provoking.

Subhas. Dasgupta. — August 31, 2021

[…] draws explicit connections between Shakespeare’s plays, the plague-ridden times in which they were written, and the post-plague world in which the Traveling Symphony is performing them. Playing the fairy […]

Station Eleven, Shakespeare, and artists in a pandemic — December 21, 2021