Canadian television comedy Slings & Arrows shows the backstage lives of a Shakespearean theatre company. Finding wild success in Canada and abroad, the series won twenty-two television awards, received rave reviews in the United States, and the Brazilian version, Som e Fúria, earned audiences of eighteen million viewers. This book not only asks but also answers the question, why Shakespeare today?
Offering a diverse collection of essays as well as original interviews with the actors (Rothaford Gray) and creators (Susan Coyne, Bob Martin, and Mark McKinney) of the show, this text is a pivotal resource for any fan, critic, or scholar of Slings & Arrows and Shakespeare adaptation. With the backdrop of debates over Shakespeare’s cultural value today, this book fittingly articulates and fosters its own scholarly debate about the relevance of Slings & Arrows in Shakespeare adaptation studies and Canadian theatre. A common theme linking the different perspectives of the book’s contributors is the idea that the adaptation of colonial figures like Shakespeare continues to be contentious, and, in fact, is symbolic of colonialism deeply embedded in Canadian cultural identity. Slings & Arrows, the book proposes, does not merely explore Shakespeare and Canada, but rather the more provocative relationship of Shakespeare as Canada.
Tying together themes of art, theatre, film, culture, and colonialism, this collection investigates the longstanding relevance of Shakespeare through the lens of adaptation.