The Portia Project: the Heiress of Belmont on Stage and Screen
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University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2011 The Portia Project: The Heiress of Belmont on Stage and Screen Ann Mccauley Basso University of South Florida, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons, and the Theatre History Commons Scholar Commons Citation Basso, Ann Mccauley, "The Portia Project: The Heiress of Belmont on Stage and Screen" (2011). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/3000 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Portia Project: The Heiress of Belmont on Stage and Screen by Ann McCauley Basso A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Major Professor: Sara Munson Deats, Ph.D. David Bevington, Ph.D. Denis Calandra, Ph.D. Robert Logan, Ph.D. Date of Approval March 4, 2011 Keywords: Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare, Performance, Theater History, Seana McKenna, Kelsey Brookfield, Marni Penning, Lily Rabe Copyright © 2011, Ann McCauley Basso Dedication To Giulio and Valentina, the two brightest stars in my universe. Acknowledgements I am profoundly grateful to Sara Deats, the most insightful, helpful, and utterly delightful director any dissertation writer could ever hope for. You have been my professor, my mentor, my supporter, and my friend, and you have enriched my life in countless ways. My heartfelt thanks also go to my esteemed committee: David Bevington, Denis Calandra, and Robert Logan. I am fortunate to have had such eminent and astute readers, and I am exceedingly thankful for the generous gifts of your time and advice. Thank you to the actors and directors who allowed me to interview them: Kelsey Brookfield, Seth Duerr, Edward Hall, Seana McKenna, Douglas Morse, Marni Penning, and Lily Rabe. I would also like to express my appreciation to the Interlibrary Loan staff at the University of South Florida, especially Sandra Law. These unsung heroes tracked down the most obscure articles and books quickly and efficiently, and I could not have completed this work without their help. Thank you also to the librarians at the Folger Shakespeare Library and to Georgianna Ziegler, who graciously assisted me with citing the many promptbooks I used. My gratitude goes also to the English Department at USF, which granted me a University Graduate Fellowship and further supported with me a teaching assistantship. Finally, my sincere appreciation goes to Sheila Diecidue, whose enthusiastism and encouragement started me on the path to being a Shakespearean scholar. Table of Contents Prologue ...............................................................................................................................1 Chapter One: Literary History .............................................................................................5 The Early Critics ............................................................................................................5 Nineteenth-Century “Character Criticism” ....................................................................6 Cultural and Historical Criticism .................................................................................11 Formalist Criticism ......................................................................................................14 Portia and Medea .........................................................................................................19 Performance Criticism .................................................................................................21 Psychoanalytical Criticism...........................................................................................23 Feminist Criticism ........................................................................................................25 Comic Resolution and the Comic Heroine ..................................................................39 Friendship or Homoeroticism ......................................................................................43 New Historicism and Cultural Materialism .................................................................46 Legal Analysis - The Courtroom Scene and the Law ..................................................51 Précis ............................................................................................................................56 Chapter Two: Performance History ...................................................................................60 Early Productions .........................................................................................................64 The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries ...................................................................65 The Turn of the Century to World War Two ...............................................................68 Star Portias ...................................................................................................................72 Major Post-War Productions in the USA.....................................................................77 Repertory Productions around the U.S. .......................................................................82 Canadian Controversy ..................................................................................................88 The Royal Shakespeare Company and Beyond ...........................................................92 Global Productions in Translation .............................................................................101 Shakespeare’s Merchant and Marlowe’s Jew ............................................................105 Homoerotic Productions, Homophobic Critics ..........................................................107 Pushing the Envelope .................................................................................................109 The Big Screen and the Small Screen ........................................................................114 Précis ..........................................................................................................................122 Chapter Three: Seana McKenna ......................................................................................125 Chapter Four: Marni Penning ..........................................................................................142 Chapter Five: Kelsey Brookfield .....................................................................................158 i Chapter Six: Lily Rabe.....................................................................................................178 Epilogue ...........................................................................................................................196 Works Cited .....................................................................................................................206 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................231 Appendix: List of Productions .........................................................................................242 ii List of Tables Table 1: Portia, Shylock, Bassanio and Antonio .................................................................2 iii Abstract Until now, there has not been a performance history of The Merchant of Venice that focuses on Portia, the main character of the play. Although she has the most lines, the most stage time, and represents the nexus of the action, Portia has often been hidden in Shylock’s shadow, and this dissertation seeks to bring her into the spotlight. The Portia Project is a contribution to literary and theatrical history; its primary goal is to provide a tool for scholars and teachers. Moreover, because of Merchant’s notoriously problematic nature, the play invites different perspectives. By presenting the diverse ways that actors and directors have approached the play and resolved the cruxes associated with Portia, I aim to demonstrate that there are multiple valid ways in which to interpret the text. Chapter one explores the literary criticism of The Merchant of Venice, centering on the treatment of the play’s female protagonist. The early twentieth century produced wide-ranging interpretations of Portia, and the last fifty years have seen her analyzed through the lenses of feminism, cultural materialism, psychoanalytic criticism, and queer theory. Having analyzed the literary criticism, I next concentrate on the performance history of The Merchant of Venice, with particular attention to Portia. I then turn to those who have performed the role in a wide-range of theatrical venues. Chapter three features the input of Seana McKenna—star of the Canadian stage and a mainstay of the Stratford Festival in Ontario—who played Portia in a 1989 production. Michael Langham directed in an atmosphere of trepidation over the play’s reception and its portrayal of Shylock’s forced conversion. For chapter four I interviewed iv Marni Penning, a veteran of the smaller repertory companies that are sprinkled about the United States. For chapter five I talked to Edward Hall, artistic director of the all-male