Reposted by Dr. Benjamin Broadribb
Stephen Watkins reviews Shakespeare’s Globe’s 2025 production of Troilus and Cressida, directed by Owen Horsley
🎭: www.shakespearesglobe.com/whats-on/tro...
📰: muse.jhu.edu/article/998132
📷: Helen Murray
Dr. Benjamin Broadribb
@benbroadribb.bsky.social
994 followers 1.2K following 237 posts
Performance Reviews Editor for Shakespeare Bulletin | Shakespeare on screen(s) | Shakespop | metamodernism | performance | adaptation | cinema | theatre | he/him/his
![A brown-skinned man, Hamlet (Hiran Abeysekera), with full, dark curls and red nail polish is sitting center stage, bathed in white light. He is wearing a cream-colored sweatshirt with the blue and yellow Blockbuster Video logo on the front and long dark-brown pants. He has one hand on his lap and another in the shape of a gun, pointing at his temple. He is looking up and to the left, with his eyebrows raised and his mouth open as if mid-speech. Below the image is the text “[T]he production captured a recognizably modern pressure: the strain of being constantly looked at and rehearsing oneself for that gaze. What Hastie's Hamlet ultimately offered was less a search for a singular, interior tragic essence than an exploration of the ethics of being watched.”. The image and the text are over an orange background with the SB logo.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:sopgsks5ttyonu7quuyavquu/bafkreifbhnrpraq4aarxfs46nkqz3nkckavzvulpte2zdptbyeywdw2mzu)
![The text “In both novel and film form, Hamnet makes a concerted effort to decenter Shakespeare by bringing his family into the foreground alongside him [. . .] Shakespeare—referred to throughout just as Will (Paul Mescal)—is not alone in his parental grief. Buckley's portrayal of Agnes, Will's wife, confronts the viewer with unflinchingly raw maternal pain, anger, and self-castigation following the death of her son. Hamnet brings Agnes Shakespeare into the foreground alongside her husband to offer a nuanced and heartbreaking portrayal of grief for the loss of a child.” over an orange background with the SB logo.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:sopgsks5ttyonu7quuyavquu/bafkreigks3k64yyqfcjxwvrv3iuzu6glmsc4k4c5mstobyq5ygybuiszl4)
![An image of Macduff (Tom Rooney) and Macbeth (Tom McCamus) facing off in the parking lot, with a motorcycle between them. The man on the left, Macduff, has pale skin, shoulder-length blonde/graying hair, and a long beard. He is wearing jeans and a black leather vest that has a skull with red and orange wings on the back. He is wearing flannel under his vest and a red bandana tied around his forehead. He has a knife in his hand, pointing at the man across from him. The man on the right, Macbeth, has pale skin, white hair, and gray stubble. He is wearing a plain black leather jacket and black pants, with his hands open in front of him. Below the image is the text “[This Macbeth] valorized the very masculine hyperbole it portrayed: the violence, the bravado, the aesthetic. By adopting the trappings of '90s motorcycle gangs without any self-awareness or critical distance, the production seemed intent on celebrating a particularly toxic version of masculinity rather than interrogating it.”. The image and the text are over a blue background with the SB logo.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:sopgsks5ttyonu7quuyavquu/bafkreib6dtiik7v2c3ewvmhka25rrnxgvtnegoehgpt5zuwubvthopkk2m)
![An image of Hester (Rufus Round), a boy in a white shirt with gold jewelry around his neck, wearing a dark, shoulder-length curly wig and an ornate gold crown with diamonds along the outside. He is the focus of the photo but he has the audience in front of him and behind him, as if he is walking down an aisle. His mouth is parted as if he is speaking to them. Below the image is the text “The revival after almost five hundred years of a now-obscure Tudor court performance that depicts, in ragged rhyme, the biblical Esther would present a challenge to even the most accomplished professional troupe of actors. Not so for the intrepid Edward’s Boys [. . .] These players succeeded in bringing to life the most consequential political and personal crisis in the reign of Henry VIII, when England was in the traumatic throes of the Protestant Reformation.”. The image and the text are over a blue background with the SB logo.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:sopgsks5ttyonu7quuyavquu/bafkreidypcsdmqjdlsptvlaci66rbdtjviymferdp6fmo7qzis4ju2epai)
![An image of Christopher “Kit” Marlowe (Ncuti Gatwa) and William “Will” Shakespeare (Edward Bluemel) sitting at a wooden table at the center of the stage. The man on the left, Kit, is dark skinned, with short black hair, and he is wearing dark brown leather pants with a high collared matching jacket. He is leaning over the table with one knee on a stool and one hand braced against the table, leaning towards the other man. The man on the right, Will, has pale skin, light brown hair that is in slight disarray, and he is sitting on a stool facing the other man. He is wearing light brown leather pants, a white flowy shirt, and a brown vest. He is holding a quill in his hand. Below the image is the text “Inspired by the New Oxford Shakespeare editors’ conclusion that “Marlowe had collaborated with Shakespeare on the three Henry VI history plays”, Liz Duffy Adams offered an imagined representation of the playwrights’ processes and personal relationship [. . .] At ninety minutes without an interval, it was a fast-paced, quick-witted, ironic, sexy, and surprisingly emotional glimpse into lost moments in history.”. The image and the text are over a blue background with the SB logo.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:sopgsks5ttyonu7quuyavquu/bafkreieeeica5kxtsmezbqg5i3wqspas2xu7n75ageyvsbh7ay62p7krta)
![An image of Maria (Daphne Rubin-Vega), Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Jesse Tyler Ferguson), Sir Toby Belch (John Ellison Conlee), and Fabian (Kapil Talwalkar) hiding behind giant green block letters while Malvolio (Peter Dinklage) reads a letter centerstage, with the text “The ninety-minute performance I saw gave the play a happier ending than Shakespeare's text. Like the earlier transformation of the sword fight between Aguecheek and Cesario/Viola into an entirely ridiculous boxing match, [Malvolio’s final exit] turned even the potential for pain into uncomplicated pleasure.” over a green background with the SB logo.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:sopgsks5ttyonu7quuyavquu/bafkreihxeqtfutbeukvskra2efok7ihyjub6bxk3zorvzgson3wzfpfs3y)
![An image of Olivia (Sandra Oh), Maria (Daphne Rubin-Vega), and members of the company with the text “[I]t's important to remember that the full title is Twelfth Night, Or What You Will, with the "or" suggesting a playful element, as if the play should be viewed as a bagatelle, a trifle. These differing meanings were echoed in Ali's production by two different modes of performance: some actors played their parts as if the play were a farce, while others did so as if the play were a tragicomedy.” over a green background with the SB logo.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:sopgsks5ttyonu7quuyavquu/bafkreicc5lbaj45xrwmrzk5vt5ax2m6p4l3wenjcayi3ibtjqvuw6b23a4)
