"Young Hearts"/White Masks

Leading the (Color)blind at Shakespeare's Globe

Authors

Nicola Hyland Victoria University of Wellington, N.Z.

Abstract

"Young Hearts"/White Masks: Leading the (Color)blind at Shakespeare's Globe" explores the paradoxes of color-blind casting by reviewing an unintentionally cross-cultural production of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet performed at Shakespeare's Globe in London. An exploration of the language of the text examines connections with tribal tensions, the signifying presence of binaries, and the distinctive positioning of Romeo as a flawed outsider. The notion of a troubled black masculinity is identified through the representation of a desexualized relationship, revealing a continued anxiety about the performance of interracial romances. While a discussion of place explores the mimetic nature of performance as heightening cultural identities, this is challenged by the "happy hybridity" of Shakespeare's Globe, which uses race as a novelty. The production attempts to appear culturally integrated without engaging with the problems of racial politics. The analysis of this production reveals that the cultural identity of an actor cannot be made invisible and that race will continue to have political meanings in Shakespearean performance.

Author Biography

Nicola Hyland, Victoria University of Wellington, N.Z.

Nicola Hyland is a Lecturer in the Theatre Program at Victoria University of Wellington New Zealand, completing a Ph.D. in Theatre Studies at the University of Melbourne in Australia. Her research focuses on contemporary post-colonial performance, hybrid and counter-canonical discourses, and cross-cultural theatre. Nicola is the author of "'Kind of like an evil version of our accent': Imagining National Identity in Performances of Trans-Tasman Rivalry," Australasian Drama Studies 62 (April 2013) and has forthcoming articles on the performance of Black Masculinity and representing otherness through performing objects. Nicola has ancestral ties with the Te Atihaunui-a-Paparangi and Ngati Hauiti iwi of New Zealand.