Shakespeare's Isabella and Cressida on the Modern Stage
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''Shrewd Tempters with their Tongues..,: Shakespeare's Isabella and Cressida on the Modern Stage Anna Kamaralli A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts, School of Theatre, Film and Dance of the University ofNSW In partial fulfillment of the degree ofMA(Hons) 2002 ii Abstract Shakespeare's Isabella (Measure for Measure) and Cressida (Troilus and Cressida) share an unusual critical and theatrical history. Unappreciated o:ri stage, contentious on the page, they have traditionally provoked discomfort among critics, wl).o l).ave ~~€::J:'! quicker to see them as morally reprehensible than to note their positive qualities. Seemingly at polar opposites of the personal and moral spectrum, the two share an independence of spirit, a refusal to conform to the desires and requirements of men, and a power to polarize opinion. This thesis considers the ways in which attitudes to Isabella and Cressida on the English speaking stage have shifted, over the latter half of the twentieth century, in the light of an escalating public awareness of issues of feminism and gender politics. Against a close reading of Shakespeare's text, both literary and performance criticism are examined, together with archival material relating to theatre productions of the plays, primarily by the Royal Shakespeare Company. The thesis concludes that in the case of both characters a change is indeed discemable. For Isabella, it is informed by the idea that the ethical code to which she adheres deserves respect, and that her marriage to the Duke is neither inevitable, nor inevitably welcomed by her. Cressida has undergone a more dramatic change: she is no longer assumed to be constitutionally immoral, and her behaviour is examined without preconception. While the full range of possibilities offered by the text for a feminist reading of these "problem women" seem not yet to have found their way onto the stage with any regularity, a new focus on reading Isabella and Cressida can be identified: it is constituted less by a tendency to judge the character for the choices she makes, and more by a readiness to examine precisely the nature of the choices open to her. iii Acknowledgements My gratitude and warmest thanks: to my supervisors, John Golder and Richard Madelaine, who have been stalwart throughout this long endeavour; to the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, for funding assistance with travel, enabling me to undertake research in England; to the Shakespeare Centre Library, Stratford-Upon-Avon, the Royal National Theatre, London, and the Bell Shakespeare Company, for access to their archives; to Nick Enright, Susan Lyons, Simon Phillips and John Bell, for always responding to my questions; to Bille Brown for his generosity with time and contacts; to Company B, Belvoir for its tolerance of my vagaries; and to Innes Wilson, with the nurturing instincts of Demeter and the patience of Job. iv Table of Contents Abstract 11 Acknowledgements 111 Table of Contents lV List of Illustrations V I: Introduction 1 II: Isabella's Choice 26 III: Cressida' s Betrayal 81 Conclusion 142 Appendix: Productions Referred To 146 Bibliography 148 V List of Illustrations Fig. 1 Barbara Jefford as Isabella, 1950 Fig. 2 Judi Dench as Isabella, 1962 Fig. 3 Estelle Kohler as Isabella, 1970 Fig. 4 Francesca Annis as Isabella, 1974 Fig. 5 Paola Dionisotti as Isabella, 1978 Fig. 6 Juliet Stevenson as Isabella, 1983 Fig. 7 Josette Simon as Isabella, 1987 Fig. 8 Stella Gonet as Isabella, 1994 Fig. 9 Clare Holman as Isabella, 1998 Fig. 10 Muriel Pavlow as Cressida, 1954 Fig. 11 Dorothy Tutin as Cressida, 1960 Fig. 12 Helen Mirren as Cressida, 1968 Fig. 13 Francesca Annis as Cressida, 1976 Fig. 14 Francesca Annis as Cressida, 1976 Fig. 15 Juliet Stevenson as Cressida, 1985 Fig. 16 Victoria Hamilton as Cressida, 1996 Fig. 17 Jayne Ashbourne as Cressida, 1998 Fig. 18 Sophie Okonedo as Cressida, 1999 Fig. 19 Blazey Best as Cressida, 2000 Fig. 20 Barbara Jefford as Isabella, 1950 Fig. 21 Dorothy Tutin as Cressida, 1960 I: Introduction It would be hard to find two female characters in Shakespeare more apparently different than Isabella in Measure for Measure and Cressida in Troilus and Cressida, the one a novice nun prepared to put her chastity before all other considerations, the other a symbol of female sexual faithlessness. Appearances are deceptive; the two roles have much in common that can be discerned not only in the playtexts, but also in their critical and performance history. To begin with, they slot all too easily into the virgin/whore dichotomy traditional in Western literature; but Isabella is many things besides a virgin, and Cressida cannot be summed up by calling her a whore. Both diverge dramatically from fulfilling the function of the conventional theatrical heroine. Both are victims of male power systems in which the woman is an item of currency to be traded for a man. Both defeat attempts by men to be the controlling force on their sexuality. Both fight a system of sexual politics that would sexualize their bodies and their language and barter their sexuality. Both, of course, are fictitious constructs of a male playwright, writing at a time that predates such modem terminology, and yet both embody questions about women's physical and sexual autonomy that are only recently being addressed in public debate. This thesis aims to consider the performance of these roles in the light of literary criticism of the characters and the plays in which they feature, and compare it with the way the roles have been staged over the course of the second half of the twentieth century, and also with a close reading of the text. It will argue that Isabella and Cressida have a number of marked similarities as characters, and that these have provoked further similarities in the way they have been treated by critics, theatre practitioners and performance analysts. These similarities have extended to the way that changing attitudes to women over the last half-century have markedly changed the way Isabella and Cressida have been interpreted and presented. Feminist thought has had a similar effect on each, demonstrating that previously commonplace notions of the right and wrong of their actions are largely a matter of the perspective of the observer. This thesis will examine where these changes in staging have intersected with shifts in the treatment of Shakespeare's female characters in critical theory, and also make an assessment of the potential of the plays for feminist readings and stagings, along with some of the problems concomitant with such an aim. 2 Helena in All's Well That Ends Well shares certain features with Isabella and Cressida, including several that are pertinent to this thesis. These three are the heroines of those plays most usually classified as Shakespeare's "problem plays". Like Isabella and Cressida, Helena acts in opposition to the demands of the man closest to her; in this case Bertram, the man she loves, and whom she pursues despite his rejection of her. She shares with the other two a challenge to conventions of appropriate behaviour for a woman, and in particular, for a fictional romantic heroine. The traditional pattern of the comic or romantic story involves a pursuing hero who completes a series of tasks, and gains the heroine as his reward. The heroine's task is to be beautiful and virtuous, and neither to reject nor pursue the hero. None of the problem play heroines conclude by being the prize achieved. Instead, each makes a moral choice, and her decision goes directly against the wishes of the man who appears to have the greatest claim on her. Measure for Measure and All's Well That Ends Well also share significant plot similarities, notably a bed trick and subterfuge that is used to a redeeming end. Crucially, however, Helena differs from Isabella and Cressida in that no-one tries to trade her, or to force her into an exchange that puts her in danger of physical violation. Also, this thesis is largely about the immense changes in perspective on Isabella and Cressida since the women's movement became a popular social force, a change which has not occurred in a comparable way to Helena ( as a true apostle of chaste love, Helena has never been as much maligned as the other two, and as the driving force behind her own story, she has been less in need ofrescue by feminists). 1 This dissertation will focus on late-twentieth-century performances, from 1950 to 2000, the period of most rapid change in the position of women in Western society. The emergence of 1 Also, Helena has many significant features in common with other Shakespearean female characters, in plays not usually styled "problem plays". The role of women in the plot structure of All's Well shares most with Love's Labours Lost and The Merry Wives of Windsor, in which women band together without need of male guidance or assistance, to trick men, in order to teach them a lesson about relationships. These others being two of Shakespeare's most lighthearted comedies, the "dark comedy" label for All's Well may seem undeserved, were it not that Helena personally could be seen to have more in common with the more serious Cleopatra and Volumnia. In all three of these cases the woman remains entirely focused on the man, and yet does not take orders from him, seeking instead to turn him to her way of seeing things. Helena has also been compared with Julia in Two Gentlemen of Verona, for their similar use of subterfuge to pursue a man who has rejected them, and for their sheer willingness to be humiliated by him, a characteristic not shared by any of the others mentioned above.