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This paper enquires into the political and juridical themes underlying Giacomo Puccini’s opera Tosca (1900). Through the comparison of Puccini’s score, the libretto by Giacosa and Illica, and the original play by Sardou, I will present a twofold reading of the intertwinement between politics, religion, and law in this musical work. On the one hand, I will show that the police power represented by the character of Scarpia can be interpreted, from a Benjaminian standpoint, as a violent power that shapes the legal and religious order. On the other hand, I will argue that the artistic couple made by Cavaradossi and Tosca is politically significant in so far as their art represents an attempt to deactivate Scarpia’s pervading and oppressive force. The conclusion will contend that the aesthetics in this opera subtends the aspiration for an “inoperative”-wise revolution in religious institutions as well as in legal and political relations.

Un-taming the Shrew

This article discusses the adaptation film, Shakespeare Retold: The Taming of the Shrew, as compared to original play, The Taming of the Shrew, by Shakespeare by highlighting the different modern perspective of the film. Likely to be interpreted as a valuable addition to the play with the ending it proposes and the way it handles the issue of taming, the film brings the play to the attention of the modern audience by clarifying the vague details and contextualising it in the modern English. In this respect, the article aims to bring the film and the play into focus by introducing a fresh and lively re-interpretation of The Taming of the Shrew to the Shakespearean drama studies.

Orisa-Shakespeare: A study of Shakespeare Adaptations Inspired by the Yoruba Tradition

<p>This thesis combines creative practice with critical analysis to intervene in the field of post-colonial Shakespeare where, for over a generation, the process of adaptation has been presented as one of the main strategies by which Shakespeare’s ambiguous legacy in successor cultures can be both confronted and manipulated. Scholars often use the term “writing back” to designate a set of adaptations which challenge the cultural capital that Shakespeare privileges. By linking Yoruba spirituality in its political and cultural terms to the wider field of the relation between Africa, African writers and theatre makers and Shakespeare, the thesis proposes a new sub-field or genre of adaptations, “Orisa-Shakespeare,” rooted in Yoruba traditions. The thesis argues that, written in Nigeria and the Yoruba global diaspora, this set of adaptations are not necessarily challenging the Shakespeare canon but addressing their own societies, thus “writing forward.” The thesis examines the cultural and political significance of this bourgeoning body of adaptations of Shakespeare through the lens of Yoruba epistemology and its aesthetic principles. The thesis is broadly divided into two parts: an exegesis of selected adaptations of Shakespeare as case studies of post-colonial works that reflect and integrate Yoruba creative and performative idioms and translate them into dramaturgy; and an original play, Emi Caesar! in which core elements of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar are transplanted into the complex, violent world of Yoruba politics of the mid-19th century, as a parable for contemporary Nigeria politics where factionalism (specifically tribal/ethnic bigotry) works against the integrity and security of the society. In the context that the thesis proposes, the present has constant recourse to the past, especially the ancestors, and engages in rituals which create ongoing, living links between human beings and the realm of the Yoruba Gods (Orisa).The outcomes are the documentation of a uniquely Yoruba theory of literary creativity, a new play based on Julius Caesar, and an original contribution to the broad field of postcolonial (Shakespeare) adaptations scholarship.</p>

Orisa-Shakespeare: A study of Shakespeare Adaptations Inspired by the Yoruba Tradition

<p>This thesis combines creative practice with critical analysis to intervene in the field of post-colonial Shakespeare where, for over a generation, the process of adaptation has been presented as one of the main strategies by which Shakespeare’s ambiguous legacy in successor cultures can be both confronted and manipulated. Scholars often use the term “writing back” to designate a set of adaptations which challenge the cultural capital that Shakespeare privileges. By linking Yoruba spirituality in its political and cultural terms to the wider field of the relation between Africa, African writers and theatre makers and Shakespeare, the thesis proposes a new sub-field or genre of adaptations, “Orisa-Shakespeare,” rooted in Yoruba traditions. The thesis argues that, written in Nigeria and the Yoruba global diaspora, this set of adaptations are not necessarily challenging the Shakespeare canon but addressing their own societies, thus “writing forward.” The thesis examines the cultural and political significance of this bourgeoning body of adaptations of Shakespeare through the lens of Yoruba epistemology and its aesthetic principles. The thesis is broadly divided into two parts: an exegesis of selected adaptations of Shakespeare as case studies of post-colonial works that reflect and integrate Yoruba creative and performative idioms and translate them into dramaturgy; and an original play, Emi Caesar! in which core elements of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar are transplanted into the complex, violent world of Yoruba politics of the mid-19th century, as a parable for contemporary Nigeria politics where factionalism (specifically tribal/ethnic bigotry) works against the integrity and security of the society. In the context that the thesis proposes, the present has constant recourse to the past, especially the ancestors, and engages in rituals which create ongoing, living links between human beings and the realm of the Yoruba Gods (Orisa).The outcomes are the documentation of a uniquely Yoruba theory of literary creativity, a new play based on Julius Caesar, and an original contribution to the broad field of postcolonial (Shakespeare) adaptations scholarship.</p>

Theatre as TBLT: The implementation of theatre in a high school EFL Oral Communication course in Japan

<p>Task-based learning and teaching (TBLT) has garnered growing interest from educators in EFL contexts around the world, particularly in East Asian classroom contexts such as Japan where prominent entrance examinations can exert a strong influence on pedagogy (Wada, 2002; Stewart, 2009). Aiming to increase communicative practice during class in such contexts, implementation of TBLT has yielded mixed results and some have questioned the ability of TBLT to achieve its objectives given the institutional constraints present in those contexts (Carless 2004, 2007, 2009; Butler 2011; Sato 2010, 2011). Most of these studies explore pedagogical tasks of a more conventional nature and overlook how holistic activities from other disciplines outside of language teaching can function as legitimate examples of TBLT. The current study nominated theatre as one such holistic activity and examined the implementation of theatre as a form of task-based pedagogy, following the study of Carson (2012). The theatre tasks were designed to fulfil the criteria for creative tasks, as described by Willis (1996) and the present study investigated to what extent theatre could promote language learning within such a task-based approach (e.g. Ellis 2003, 2009; Shekan 2003; Samuda & Bygate 2008). The main study was quasi-experimental in design and investigated whether two types of theatre tasks could function as viable instructional packages. The theatre tasks were either a theatrical adaptation of an existing story (Adapted Play) or an original story based on one of three provided themes (Original Play). These two tasks were distinguished by the different amounts of conceptual creativity that they required, with the Original Plays identified as more difficult due to their greater creative demands. Three aspects of these tasks were analysed: 1) the process of collaboratively devising a play; 2) the effects of task difficulty on the language produced in the task performance; and 3) the students’ reflections on their engagement with the tasks. The implementation of these tasks occurred during regularly scheduled Oral Communication (OC) classes at a high school in Japan. With a counterbalanced design, groups of six to seven students performed one of the tasks in the first study and then, after a period of ten weeks, performed the other task. Either task consisted of approximately 100 minutes of planning and rehearsal, spread out evenly over four class periods, and culminated in a staged performance during a fifth lesson. The data compiled for analysis was taken from audio and video recordings of both group work in class and the final performances of each group, as well as post-task surveys administered to each student individually after each study. The main findings of this analysis were: (1) students in the Adapted Plays produced more fluent and syntactically complex language while students in the Original Plays produced less complex but more accurate language; (2) the Adapted Plays featured more use of overt narration which influenced the fluency and complexity of those plays; (3) student reflections from their post-task surveys indicated that the collaborative element of the tasks increased intrinsic motivation for completing the task; and (4) less initial demands on conceptual creativity in the Adapted Plays appeared to free up time later in the process to compose longer stories, though the frequency and quality of language related talk did not differ noticeably between the two play types. Based on these findings, two points can be argued. Firstly, the Original Play tasks put increased demands on students’ conceptual creativity. In relation to this, the provided content of the Adapted Play tasks acted as an ‘embedded scaffolding’ (Shapiro, 2008). Secondly, theatre, envisioned as a creative task within a TBLT framework, satisfied the criteria for a task (Ellis, 2003) but raised issues regarding the constructs of planning and report found in the ‘task cycle’ of Willis’ (1996) pedagogical framework.</p>

Theatre as TBLT: The implementation of theatre in a high school EFL Oral Communication course in Japan

<p>Task-based learning and teaching (TBLT) has garnered growing interest from educators in EFL contexts around the world, particularly in East Asian classroom contexts such as Japan where prominent entrance examinations can exert a strong influence on pedagogy (Wada, 2002; Stewart, 2009). Aiming to increase communicative practice during class in such contexts, implementation of TBLT has yielded mixed results and some have questioned the ability of TBLT to achieve its objectives given the institutional constraints present in those contexts (Carless 2004, 2007, 2009; Butler 2011; Sato 2010, 2011). Most of these studies explore pedagogical tasks of a more conventional nature and overlook how holistic activities from other disciplines outside of language teaching can function as legitimate examples of TBLT. The current study nominated theatre as one such holistic activity and examined the implementation of theatre as a form of task-based pedagogy, following the study of Carson (2012). The theatre tasks were designed to fulfil the criteria for creative tasks, as described by Willis (1996) and the present study investigated to what extent theatre could promote language learning within such a task-based approach (e.g. Ellis 2003, 2009; Shekan 2003; Samuda & Bygate 2008). The main study was quasi-experimental in design and investigated whether two types of theatre tasks could function as viable instructional packages. The theatre tasks were either a theatrical adaptation of an existing story (Adapted Play) or an original story based on one of three provided themes (Original Play). These two tasks were distinguished by the different amounts of conceptual creativity that they required, with the Original Plays identified as more difficult due to their greater creative demands. Three aspects of these tasks were analysed: 1) the process of collaboratively devising a play; 2) the effects of task difficulty on the language produced in the task performance; and 3) the students’ reflections on their engagement with the tasks. The implementation of these tasks occurred during regularly scheduled Oral Communication (OC) classes at a high school in Japan. With a counterbalanced design, groups of six to seven students performed one of the tasks in the first study and then, after a period of ten weeks, performed the other task. Either task consisted of approximately 100 minutes of planning and rehearsal, spread out evenly over four class periods, and culminated in a staged performance during a fifth lesson. The data compiled for analysis was taken from audio and video recordings of both group work in class and the final performances of each group, as well as post-task surveys administered to each student individually after each study. The main findings of this analysis were: (1) students in the Adapted Plays produced more fluent and syntactically complex language while students in the Original Plays produced less complex but more accurate language; (2) the Adapted Plays featured more use of overt narration which influenced the fluency and complexity of those plays; (3) student reflections from their post-task surveys indicated that the collaborative element of the tasks increased intrinsic motivation for completing the task; and (4) less initial demands on conceptual creativity in the Adapted Plays appeared to free up time later in the process to compose longer stories, though the frequency and quality of language related talk did not differ noticeably between the two play types. Based on these findings, two points can be argued. Firstly, the Original Play tasks put increased demands on students’ conceptual creativity. In relation to this, the provided content of the Adapted Play tasks acted as an ‘embedded scaffolding’ (Shapiro, 2008). Secondly, theatre, envisioned as a creative task within a TBLT framework, satisfied the criteria for a task (Ellis, 2003) but raised issues regarding the constructs of planning and report found in the ‘task cycle’ of Willis’ (1996) pedagogical framework.</p>

Regional Basin Play Analogue Evaluation Offshore Northwest Java Basin To Find New Opportunities in Matured Field

The Northwest Java Basin is a mature oil and gas basin that has been explored and developed for more than 50 years. Almost all of the conventional plays have been explored and produced. Therefore, discovering new play concepts that potentially have significant resources are very challenging. A comparison of the Sunda, Ardjuna and Jatibarang Sub-Basins that are within the Offshore Northwest Java Basin was carried out based on the original plays of each sub-basin. The results led to the new play analogue for one sub-basin to another. The workflow for the study is as follows: data integration, basin statistics, basin modelling, basin comparison, play inventory, current original play type, play analogue and then play-based map. There are two potential new plays in the offshore Northwest Java Basin namely: (1) Eocene Carbonate Play and (2) Fractured Basement Play. The opportunities of these new plays at the new structure need to be further explored and accelerated to achieve the development phase, apart from the ‘old’ plays. The evaluation study of the Sunda Sub-Basin (including the Yani Sub-Basin and North Seribu Trough), Ardjuna Sub-Basin and Jatibarang Sub-Basin has revealed new exploration plays which are the Cretaceous Fractured Basement play, Eocene Carbonate play, Pre-Rift Volcanoclastic play, Early Oligocene Alluvial Fan and Lacustrine Sandstone plays, Late Oligocene Deltaic Sandstone play, and Miocene Shaly Sandstone play.

FROM TESTIMONY TO HETEROGLOSSIA: THE VOICE(S) OF LAMENT IN WE ARE THE PERSIANS!

We are the Persians! was a contemporary adaptation of Aeschy-lus’s The Persians presented in June 2015 at the Athens and Epidaurus Festival. Performed by displaced people from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and directed by Yolanda Markopoulou, the piece grew out of the Station Athens group’s five-year theatre workshops. Extracts from the original play were intertwined with performative material brought to the project by the participants: from real-life testimonies to vocal improvisations, poems, and songs in different languages. High-lighting the historical thematic of the play, this adaptation was presented as a documentary theatre piece, and the participants as ‘modern-day heralds’ who provided on stage ‘shocking accounts’ concerning ‘contem-porary wars’ (programme notes, 2015). After briefly revisiting the main body of literature on the voice of lament in ancient drama and in Aeschylus’s The Persians in particular, but also after discussing the recent stage history of the play in Greece, I conduct a close reading of this adaptation. Based on semi-directed interviews and audiovisual archives from both the rehearsals and the final show,I argue that the participants’ performance cannot be limited to their auto-biographical testimonies, which identify their status as refugees and/or asylum seekers. By intertwining Aeschylus with their own voices and languages, they reappropriate and reinvent the voice(s) of lament in ancient drama. In this sense, I suggest that We are the Persians! can be read as a hybrid performance of heteroglossia, which disrupts and potentially transforms dominant ways of receiving ancient drama on the modern Greek stage.

Modernising Misogyny in Shakespeare’s Shrew

This article considers how Anne Tyler’s novel, Vinegar Girl (Hogarth, 2016), adopts and adapts the critical debate concerning misogyny in Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew. Social historians have helped to contextualise the shrew-taming plot, some claiming that Shakespeare’s tale is romantic when read in context; however, students push back against such conclusions, arguing that teaching Shrew and its informing histories reinforces the patriarchy and risks normalising misogyny. My argument is structured, in part, as a response to students’ concerns, and is informed by girlhood and cultural studies. I survey Tyler’s purposeful use of the powerful term ‘girl’ to show how the taming plot is modernised, but remains misogynistic. Vinegar Girl reveals how any tale about taming a woman has an underlying message of male dominance. In Tyler’s novel, misogynistic values are sometimes romanticised, sometimes criticised, and frequently both simultaneously. In this contradictory way, it is very much like Shakespeare’s original play.

NIKOLAI ERDMAN: CZECH TRANSLATIONS AND STAGE INTERPRETATIONS

Введение. Представлено восприятие Николая Эрдмана и его драматургических произведений в бывшей Чехословакии и современной Чешской Республике. Исследование сосредоточивается в первую очередь на интерпретации пьес драматурга в чешских переводах и на чешских сценах. Материал и методы. Материалом исследования послужили архивные материалы, программы спектаклей, записи постановок, критические отзывы в периодике, дневники и воспоминания переводчиков, а также публикации о движении малых театров-студий, изданные до 1989 г. Материалы проанализированы с точки зрения переводоведения, театроведения и восприятия постановок зрителями и профессиональными критиками. Результаты и обсуждение. Сатирическая комедия Эрдмана «Самоубийца» была дважды переведена на чешский язык известными чешскими переводчиками Яном Забраной (1967) и Аленой Моравковой (1985). В 1971 г. в бывшей Чехословакии на сцене сатирического театра «Вечерний Брно» была поставлена пьеса «Мандат», а постановка «Самоубийцы» состоялась в 1987 г. Выход в печать в 1985 г. чешского перевода этой пьесы, выполненного Аленой Моравковой, на три года опередил советскую публикацию оригинала. Исследование также отражает самые значимые чешские постановки пьес Эрдмана до и после Бархатной революции. Заключение. Анализ переводов и сценических интерпретаций доказывает, что и восемьдесят лет спустя сатирические произведения Н. Эрдмана являются актуальными произведениями, глубокое гуманистическое и философское содержание которых находит отклик у современного зрителя. Как и до 1989 г., когда пьесы ставились в так называемых малых театрах-студиях, и в современности наибольший интерес к пьесам Эрдмана проявляют небольшие сцены, студенческие коллективы и любительские театры. Важно отметить, что темы, подчеркиваемые в сценических интерпретациях чешскими постановщиками до и после Бархатной революции, принципиально отличаются. Introduction. This paper aims to present the perception of Nikolai Erdman and his plays in the former Czechoslovakia and the modern Czech Republic. The article primarily focuses on the interpretation of Erdman’s plays in Czech translations and on Czech stages. Materials and methods. The research was based on the study of archival sources, such as programs for theatre productions, recordings of performances, critical responses in periodicals, translators’ diaries and memoirs, as well as post-1989 publications on the small theatre movement, etc. Theatre productions and their reception by the public and professional critics were analysed. The materials were also subjected to translational analysis. Results and discussion. Erdman’s satirical comedy The Suicide has been translated into Czech twice by renowned Czech translators Jan Zábrana (1967) and Alena Morávková (1985). In 1971, The Mandate was staged at the satirical theatre Večerní Brno (Evening Brno), which was the first production of Erdman’s plays in the former Czechoslovakia. The Suicide was staged in 1987. The publication of the Czech translation of The Suicide created by Alena Morávková in 1985 was three years ahead of the Soviet publication of the original play. The paper also reflects significant productions of Erdman’s plays at the E. F. Burian Theatre or Studio Ypsilon. Modern Czech stage productions of The Mandate (last performed in 2009) and, first of all, The Suicide (last performed in 2019) are also reflected in the paper. Conclusion. An analysis of the plays’ translations and stage versions proves that even eighty years after their creation, the satirical works of Nikolai Erdman are still relevant thanks to their deep humanistic and philosophical content that resonates with the modern audience. Both before and after 1989, Erdman’s plays were staged in so-called small (studio) theatres. Even today, the interest to Erdman’s plays arises in small theatres, student companies and amateur theatres. However, the themes that Czech directors emphasize in their contemporary productions are fundamentally different from what was targeted before the Velvet revolution.