For generations, directors have tried to make Shakespeare more palatable for general (read: non-Shakespeare-reading) audiences with varying degrees of success. Directors of Shakespearean dramas for contemporary audiences generally handle the ever-growing gap betwixt the Bard’s time and today in two ways. Some choose to update the setting (see Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet or Michael Almereyda’s Hamlet 2000); others choose to update the script (see 10 Things I Hate About You, a modern adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew). Rick Miller, creator, writer, and sole performer of MacHomer, has updated the script, the setting, and the players themselves of Macbeth, changing it from the Scottish tragedy to a Springfieldian comedy.
Category: Play Reviews
Mamet has been accused of being anti-feminist at best and misogynist at worst. Yet certainly we can’t say that he wants us to admire the “world of men” in this real estate office, or to agree with the characters’ attitude toward women (or toward anyone outside their white male world).
What are we to make of the influence of women in the play? What of Mrs. Lingk, who ruins Roma’s deal and indirectly brings about Levene’s final fall? What of the “ex” Levene mentions early in the play, the one who “kicked out” of another deal? What of Levene’s “daughter? And what of Harriet Nyborg, even, who serves Levene store-bought crumb cake and, along with her husband, agrees to sign a contract for land she has no intention or means of purchasing?
How are we to deal with the presence/absence of women in Glengarry Glen Ross? How might you construct an interpretation of the play that takes these women into account?
Consider the following passages from an excellent essay on the play by Coppelia Kahn called “The Absent Mother in King Lear.” Kahn argues that Lear’s transformation over the course of the play involves his gradual understanding of–to put it bluntly–the woman in himself.