Gender, Aura, and the Close-Up

This chapter provides an analysis of theater broadcasts of Nicholas Hytner’s Othello (2013) and Phyllida Lloyd’s all-female Julius Caesar (2017), demonstrating how the use of zoom lenses and close-ups can generate a sense of the remote performers’ presence and their aura that is gender-specific. Analyzing how stage performances of gendered identities are reproduced and intensified through camerawork in productions that deliberately draw attention to gender norms makes it possible to introduce into the critical discussion of theater broadcasts an understanding of how cinematography contributes to encoding and framing performances of gender and gendered presence for a majority female audience.