What would happen if we banned productions of Shakespeare's plays for a year?

Craig Stephens, 7 October 2012

What would happen to economy for eg of Stratford - arts often accused of taking but actually RSC is a big contributor to well being of Stratford

If ‘banned’ performance of his plays would be a very different thing

Shakespeare is part of our language and national psyche. Also part of heritage industry - a stop on a tour of Britain

Would a break from performing his works enable us to revisit them afresh, find new things in them and new ways of performing them?

The post mortem after a break would be important - what did we miss? what did we gain?

We would have to fill the void - could this therefore be an exciting creative endeavour.

Find new/other stories to tell.

What would it be replaced with?

There are only 7 stories in the world - should we look at others who have told them?

Are we ignoring works that can before Shakespeare or are contemporary with him?

What if for the anniversary in 2016 we did no Shakespeare?

Finding a freedom to approach Shakespeare from a fresh or naive perpsective

Could devote the talent and resources to something else for a year - something from now or looking forward.

Should it only be the RSC that is allowed to do theatre?

Has Shakespeare become too much of a brand, a monolith - when the RSC started it was a fresh and new and young venture. Are things/institutions/expectations getting in the way of is appreciating Shakespeare?

Should other writers be celebrated too.

General thoughts were thata break for a year could be an exciting creative challenge and opportunity - both to look at other work and to look at Shakespeare anew

Tags:

Theatre, RSC, heritage, ban, Shakespeare, theatre