ABSTRACT
This chapter largely builds on the interviews I have conducted with the directors. It is concerned with the directors’ reasons for working with canonical plays, and what values they see in working with such plays today. First, it demonstrates how the directors subscribe to a view of canonical plays as works of particularly ‘high quality.’ It identifies how the directors express this view in their interviews, and it discusses why this view of canonical plays is problematic. However, the directors also give a different reason for working on canonical texts, namely the opportunities for playing with and challenging audience expectations that arise from the plays’ canonical status and familiarity. The directors show a willingness to negotiate, question, and even challenge the canon in performance. I discuss how such goals of negotiating and challenging the canon explicitly on stage can be seen in the directors’ reasoning, and how they might form the foundation for what Mouffe defines as counter-hegemonic artistic practices.
