Reut Barzilai

University of Haifa, English Language and Literature, Faculty Member

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I’m a lecturer at the University of Haifa in Israel. My main fields of interest are early modern drama, anti-theatricality, and adaptation studies. I have so far published articles on Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and on the history of Hamlet productions in Israel. My book Venus’s Palace: Shakespeare and the Antitheatricalists (forthcoming from Routledge in March 2023) traces Shakespeare’s evolving engagement with anti-theatrical arguments throughout his career, mapping out a trajectory that moves from ridicule, through sustained contemplation, to unqualified dramatization. I’m currently working on a new project which centers on ‘infelicitous transactions’ between plays, playwrights and audiences. Pronouns: she, her

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Papers by Reut Barzilai

"In My Power": The Tempest as Shakespeare's Antitheatrical Vision

Shakespeare, 2019

This article argues that in The Tempest, Shakespeare dramatises the deepest antitheatrical anxiet... more This article argues that in The Tempest, Shakespeare dramatises the deepest antitheatrical anxieties of his time about music, drama, and the power that artistsplaywrights, players, musicianswield over audiences. Through a close reading of the interrelated representation of music and drama in The Tempest and in early modern English antitheatrical pamphlets, the article demonstrates the resemblance between Prospero and the antitheatrical vision of the powerful, manipulative artist who deliberately excites his audience's senses, floods them with emotion, undermines their reason, and places them in his power, while claiming that he only aims to please.

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Being European: Hamlet on the Israeli Stage

Multicultural Shakespeare: Translation, Appropriation and Performance , 2020

One of the most prolific fields of Shakespeare studies in the past two decades has been the explo... more One of the most prolific fields of Shakespeare studies in the past two decades has been the exploration of local appropriations of Shakespeare's plays around the world. This article, however, foregrounds a peculiar case of an avoidance of local appropriation. For almost 60 years, repertory Israeli theaters mostly refused to let Hamlet reflect the "age and body of the time". They repeatedly invited Europeans to direct Hamlet in Israel and offered local audiences locally-irrelevant productions of the play. They did so even though local productions of canonical plays in Israel tend to be more financially successful than those directed by non-Israelis, and even when local national and political circumstances bore a striking resemblance to the plot of the play. Conversely, when one Israeli production of Hamlet (originating in an experimental theatre) did try to hold a mirror up to Israeli society-and was indeed understood abroad as doing so-Israeli audiences and theatre critics failed to recognize their reflection in this mirror. The article explores the various functions that Hamlet has served for the Israeli theatre: a rite of passage, an educational tool, an indication of belonging to the European cultural tradition, a means of boosting the prestige of Israeli theatres, and-only finally-a mirror reflecting Israel's "age and body." The article also shows how, precisely because Hamlet was not allowed to reflect local concerns, the play mirrors instead the evolution of the Israeli theatre, its conflicted relation to the Western theatrical tradition, and its growing self-confidence.

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Books by Reut Barzilai

Venus's Palace: Shakespeare and the Antitheatricalists

This book lays bare the dialogue between Shakespeare and critics of the stage and positions it as... more This book lays bare the dialogue between Shakespeare and critics of the stage and positions it as part of an ongoing cultural, ethical, and psychological debate about the effects of performance on actors and on spectators. In so doing, the book makes a substantial contribution both to the study of representations of theatre in Shakespeare’s plays and to the understanding of ethical concerns about acting and spectating—then, and now.

The book opens with a comprehensive and coherent analysis of the main early modern English anxieties about theater and its power. These are read against twentieth- and twenty-first-century theories of acting, interviews with actors, and research into the effects of media representation on spectator behaviour, all of which demonstrate the lingering relevance of antitheatrical claims and the personal and philosophical implications of acting and spectating. The main part of the book reveals Shakespeare’s responses to major antitheatrical claims about the powerful effects of poetry, music, playacting, and playgoing. It also demonstrates the evolution of Shakespeare’s view of these claims over the course of his career: from light-hearted parody in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, through systematic contemplation in Hamlet, to acceptance and dramatization in The Tempest.

This study will be of great interest to scholars and students of theater, English literature, history, and culture.

Check it out here: Venus's Palace: www.routledge.com/9780367237127

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"In My Power": The Tempest as Shakespeare's Antitheatrical Vision

Shakespeare, 2019

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Being European: Hamlet on the Israeli Stage

Multicultural Shakespeare: Translation, Appropriation and Performance , 2020

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Venus's Palace: Shakespeare and the Antitheatricalists

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Reut Barzilai

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Books by Reut Barzilai

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