Boy Actors and Effects of Performance on the Early Modern English Stage

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17H06584
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Literature in English
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Kimura Asuka 東京大学, 大学院人文社会系研究科(文学部), 助教 (70807130)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-08-25 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 女性表象 / パフォーマンス・劇場の物質性 / 初期近代イギリス演劇 / 少年俳優 / ジェンダー・セクシュアリティ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research aimed at imagining the theatrical performance on the Shakespearean stage, especially the representation of women, three-dimensionally through close-reading of play-texts and historical research. Although it was often proclaimed that boy actors on the Shakespearean stage were invariably prepubertal, sharing many physical features with women, including voice and physique, it was probably not the case. Not a small number of boy actors were in their late teens or early twenties, suggesting they had already changed their voice or grown beard. Drawing on recent research in early modern theatre, I explored how female characters appeared on the early modern stage. For instance, in John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi, the protagonist is likely to have been impersonated by Richard Robinson, who was in his mid-teens or early twenties. If Robinson had a changed voice and male physique, the Duchess’s formidable image as a widow ruler must have been stressed.

Free Research Field

初期近代イギリス演劇

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

イギリス・ルネサンス演劇研究では特に2000年以降、初期近代の劇場の物質的条件への関心が高まっている。具体的には当時の舞台上演で用いられた衣装、小道具・大道具、ジェスチャー、俳優の身体、劇場の構造などに着目し、テクスト読解だけでは見つけることのできない新しい解釈や戯曲の可能性を明らかにしようとするものである。本研究は個別の俳優や俳優同士の関係性に注目し、戯曲を三次元的に浮かび上がらせ、俳優の身体を通じた間テクスト性を明らかにしようとするものであり、こうした近年の研究的動向に連なっている。