Robert Cohen - Theatre, Brief Version-McGraw-Hill Education (2016)

270 Chapter 10 Global Theatre Today
Copying the format of Shakespeare’s own theatre,
England’s Propeller is an all-male acting company
directed by Edward Hall. Thus in Hall’s 2006
production of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the
Shrew, Dugald Bruce Lockhart (right) plays Petruchio
(the tamer) and Simon Scardifield plays Katherine
(the “shrew”). This is no mere novelty, however, as
it allows the play to seriously engage with the
real-life implications of marital cruelty and abuse.
© Geraint Lewis
In the Globe Theatre of Shakespeare’s time, men
played all the roles. As the artistic director of
the “new” Globe Theatre in London from 1995 to
2005, Mark Rylance continued the tradition from
time to time—in this case by playing Lady Olivia
in Twelfth Night, for which he received England’s
Olivier Award, the equivalent of America’s Tony.
© Geraint Lewis