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How subject to interpretation is Shakespeare? The valid options his plays afford can seem infinite, yet they are not. This book comes fully to terms with Shakespeare's openness to interpretation while respecting the primacy of his creative presence. Hapgood sees Shakespeare the theatre-poet as making theatre not only by outlining an imaginary world, but also by providing guidelines for its enactment and reception, implying in each of his plays a distinctive rapport between the playwright, the actors, and the audience. Hapgood demonstrates that these guidelines may be found through study of the range and limits of the options that each text affords, and through close reading of several plays--particularly Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth--he provides an aesthetic for Shakespeare's theatre poetry that includes the author along with the actors and audience in the event that occurs when a play is performed.

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CHOICE Review

Many contemporary Shakespeare productions, in their urge to allow freedom to their actors and immediacy for their audiences, tend to ignore textual authority. The play's text becomes merely a script, to be altered at will. Yet Shakespeare the playwright shapes or directs his material to create theatrical scenarios; he guides both actor and audience response, without being narrow or polemical. As Hapgood argues convincingly, Shakespeare reveals his intentions most clearly in the subtle patterning of his plots and in alternating modes of speech. Plot sequences and choreographic movements within scenes are tangible evidence for interpretation of character and theme. Thus directors and audiences should recognize these subtle rhythms of Shakespeare's theatrical texts, which allow for powerful communal rapport among playwright, acting company, and audience. Hapgood (University of New Hampshire) caps his long critical involvement in Shakespearean theater with this eloquent and judicious study, rich in insight on most of the Shakespearean canon, with special attention to Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, and King Lear. Extensive references and notes to related modern drama and scholarship; good indexing. A wise and illuminating book, strongly recommended for literature and theater collections at graduate and upper-division undergraduate levels. -C. Rees, University of Connecticut