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Shakespeare Re-Dressed: Cross-Gender Casting in Contemporary Performance James C. Bulman, ed. Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2008. 255 pp $52.50 cloth
In Shakespeare Re-Dressed, James Bulman presents a collection of essays examining the cultural impact of performing Shakespeare with crossgendered actors and actresses. From William Poel and Harley Granville Barker's experiments with authenticity, to the New Globe Theatre's recent single-sex ensemble shows, this volume covers some of the most innovative productions of the past century. Admittedly inspired by Alisa Solomon's Re-Dressing the Canon (Johns Hopkins UP, 1997), Bulman contends that theatre and gender are mimetic, and that transvestism "serves to mirror the cultural constructedness of gender and identity and therefore reveal to spectators the instability of what they may have taken for granted" (12). This philosophy is almost universally heralded throughout the book. Far more controversial, however, is the question: "Does cross-gender casting today signal an archaeological interest in historical practices, or does it reflect contemporary debates about gender and sexuality?" (14). The eleven essays in this volume are almost evenly divided on the issue, and it is here that Shakespeare Re-Dressed captivates the reader.
The book opens with an assortment of theoretical discussions, with Jennifer Drouin's "Cross-Dressing, Drag, and Passing: Slippages in Shakespearean Comedy" leading the way by helpfully defining the various forms of cross-dressing. Through readings of Two Gentlemen of Verona, Twelfth Night, and As You Like It, she illustrates how oft-misunderstood identities blur in creating the humor and tension of Shakespeare's characters. Next, in "Acting Against the Rules: Remembering the Eroticism of the Shakespearean Boy Actress," Roberta Barker compares the reception of boy actresses in...