ABSTRACT

This chapter explores theatrical productions on both sides of the Tasman Sea which range across the kissing/drowning spectrum. Perhaps the Tempest-like origin-story partially accounts for the Shakespearean production history of these neighbouring countries, both old and new worlds, which might be characterized as either kissing the canonical book or attempting to drown it. The predominantly male, Pakeha-centric features of New Zealand theatre, particularly in Shakespearean productions, underwent a major shift in the early 1990s through what is termed the Maori renaissance of arts and the emergence of original Pasifika voices. Shakespeare was therefore inculcated from the earliest stages of Antipodean colonization, on both sides of the Tasman Sea, with notions of Empire, civilization, and national identity. As with many of the developments of Shakespearean theatre in the Antipodes, there exists a trans-Tasman parallel. Indigenous Shakespeares constitute one of the most important features of Antipodean Shakespearean theatrical production.