SHAKESPEARE

Synopsis

Online video recording a practical research experiment conducted at Shakespeare’s Globe in partnership with Globe Education in November 2008 and November 2009. Can performance offer answers to textual problems? Thinking about the striking differences between Q and F of Othello (printed only a year apart), "Unpinning Desdemona" uses 4.3 - the willow scene - as a test case for answering this question. The project records practical experiments conducted on the stages of Shakespeare’s (reconstructed) Globe using reconstructions of early modern dress to argue that the scene’s "meaning" resides in the undressing and to demonstrate how that undressing was done. It concludes that Q is not an actors’ text. As well as the video there is on the website a gallery of still images documenting the first run-through of the experiment on the stage of the Globe.

Language

English

Country

Great Britain

Medium

Video

Technical information

Colour / Sound

Year of release

2009

Credits

Contributor

Carol Rutter; Debs Watson; Tom Cornford

Cast

Kelsey Brookfield	Desdemona
Jon Trenchard	Emilia

Additional Details

Theatre

Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre

Production type

Documentary/Educational/News

Plays

Othello

Subjects

Drama

Keywords

costume; Shakespeare, William (1564-1616); textual analysis; theatre history; Rehearsals; Elizabethan stage

Notes

Reviews

The film illustrates an article by Carol Chillington Rutter, ‘Unpinning Desdemona (Again) or "Who would be toll’d with Wenches in a shew?"' published in Shakespeare Bulletin 28:1, Spring 2010, pp. 111-132 responding to Denise A. Walens’ ‘Unpinning Desdemona’, Shakespeare Quarterly, 58:4 Winter, 2007, pp. 487-508. Both articles are available online to subscribers to Project Muse. Extras: THE MAKING OF UNPINNING DESDEMONA.

Online Availability

Online URL

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/capital/teaching_and_learning/projects/unpinning/

Distributor

Name

University of Warwick, The CAPITAL Cente (Creativity and Performance in Teaching and Learning)

Email

capital@warwick.ac.uk

Web

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/capital External site opens in new window

Address

Millburn House, Millburn Hill Road
University of Warwick Science Park
Coventry
CV4 7HS