The story of what might have been: Interrogating Romeo and Juliet under the Portuguese dictatorship

Authors

  • Francesca Rayner Universidade do Minho

Keywords:

Romeo and Juliet, Teatro Estúdio de Lisboa, gender, class, popular theatre, Portuguese dictatorship

Abstract

Abstract

In 1969, Teatro Estúdio de Lisboa performed Anatomy of a Love Story, their adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, for a generation politicized by their struggles against the dictatorship. This article delineates a narrative of what might have been if this incipient attempt to stage a more inclusive political theatre had prevailed, illustrating how attributions of success and failure to performances during this period need to be contextualized within the limitations imposed by censorship on the one hand and the hierarchy of a class-based popular theatre over questions of gender and sexuality on the other. 

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Published

2021-11-22

Issue

Section

Articles