"why he might just be the forgotten Shakespeare for our times"

December 2, 2021 2:56 AM

John Lyly: The Queer Shakespeare is an episode of the Not Just the Tudors podcast where Dr. Suzannah Lipscomb interviews fellow historian Dr. Andy Kesson about the Elizabethan playwright John Lyly, who was "even more keen than Shakespeare on genderbending characters and unconventional love affairs". On the Before Shakespeare website, Kesson has written a lot about the works of John Lyly, as well as a book and several journal articles. He's also working with theater director Emma Frankland on a staging of Lyly's best known play, Galatea. They, and other people involved in the production, talk about the play and performing it in the 21st Century, through trans, queer, deaf, and other lenses, in a series of videos.
posted by Kattullus (4 comments total)

I read Galatea for the first time a few months ago--because it was the fall play at my sixth-grader's middle school in small-town western Virginia (the kid did set crew, partly inspired I suspect by Raina Telgemaier's Drama). Much respect and gratitude to our drama teacher and all the other folks who made it happen. The play is amazing, and like planting a tree I wish I'd read it twenty years ago but the second-best time is now.
posted by sy at 4:07 AM on December 2, 2021 [3 favorites]

Isn't the queer Shakespeare a redundant phrase?
posted by overglow at 9:01 AM on December 2, 2021 [1 favorite]

I thought Marlowe was the queer Shakespeare, but there’s more than enough room for another. Or a dozen. The videos are pretty interesting, but there are a lot of them. I feel like the Elizabethan fondness for playful reversals works well for this troupe, where not only gender and identity are trading places, but also who speaks and who signs, and what is privileged.
posted by GenjiandProust at 12:28 PM on December 2, 2021 [3 favorites]

I have to say, though, the wind across the mic made some videos hard to hear, and the white text on a light background made the substitutes hard to read, and I’m illiterate in sign. Maybe there are transcripts?
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:14 PM on December 2, 2021