What I'm Reading - EMMA SMITH’S “THIS IS SHAKESPEARE” - Mrs Cooke (English) Hamilton

Dr Emma Smith knows a thing or two about the plays of Shakespeare. She’s a Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Oxford University, in case you doubt me.

So here in this book she’s asking questions about twenty of his plays – a chapter for each – where she explores the history and staging of each one.  Smith is funny and straightforward in style and, even more importantly, I think, passionate and knowledgeable about each of these plays, their histories and what they have to say to us as a modern audience.

My favourite point in the book (so far) is that the “radical uncertainties” in Shakespeare’s work – such as being a bit thin on stage directions – allows each new production and, subsequently, each new audience, to fill all those gaps in themselves; therefore making the plays relevant as their own cultural voice.  Gaps are not holes where something is missing but pockets in which we stash new ideas!  Smith says: “These gaps are left for readers, actors, directors and audiences to inhabit” so she’s encouraging us to make William Shakespeare’s words our own, to make them relevant to our experiences of the world too.  He wrote in a very different feather-quill-flourishing world, but he wrote about human beings and really we don’t change much from age to age.  People in the 17th Century and people today love their spouses, children, pets, friends, food, and interior design; while fighting over politics and power.  For goodness sake, he lived through times of plague! He  writes of isolation in society (have you met Prince Hamlet or Macbeth?) – how relevant is that!  Betrayals, ill-fated relationships, tyrants, revenge, forgiveness, injustice, grief - it’s all in there because it’s all life, even life in our 21^st Century.  What did he think about these universal aspects of life?  What do we think now?

Smith writes: “I don’t think Shakespeare writes his plays to convey messages.  He asks questions rather than answers them.” 

I’ve found something interesting in every chapter – definitely a challenging and inspiring read for me! 

Mrs Cooke