ABSTRACT
It can be imagined that a social historian two thousand years hence, wishing to reconstruct the stage history of Shakespeare in the twentieth century, might have nothing to go on except scraps of newspapers and allusions in literature. 1 He might note more or less classic productions in a theatrical style that has evolved continuously since the sixteenth century; anthological productions like the Hollow Crown, which the Royal Shakespeare Company mounted in the sixties; recitals by one or more readers of whole plays, such as those given by the Viennese Karl Kraus in the twenties, or of speeches or scenes; Shakespearean operas, such as those of Verdi and Henze; ballets such as Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, so that the historian might read of a baritone singing Macbeth or a ballerina dancing Juliet; he might also come across musicals, such as Kiss Me Kate and The Boys from Syracuse; and he might chance, for example, on a performance of the Tempest given by a single actor with “masks, dolls, and special effects.” 2
