Cardenio, Shakespeare's 'lost play' being performed (by The Aporia Theatre) in Stratford Upon Avon, Warwickshire, UK. SEE NOTES
This free performance, part of the Royal Shakespeare Company's free outdoor concerts took place on 13th August 2011 in The Dell, on the banks of the River Avon near Holy Trinity Church, Stratford Upon Avon. IMPT NOTE: Discovered review of this performance on the internet which "Publicity materials for Aporia Theatre's dates at the Dell in Stratford-upon-Avon announced that the company would be performing "Cardenio by Shakespeare - Fletcher - Middleton: The Alternative Text." I repeat the title used by the company; but, as I knew already from information about the London run, this wasn't Cardenio at all. The play in question is better known as The Second Maiden's Tragedy or The Lady's Tragedy. In 1994, the amateur palaeographer Charles Hamilton edited and published the play as Cardenio. The source of the main plot is, indeed, Cervantes's Don Quixote, but a different tale that interweaves with the Cardenio story. An early reader did indeed suggest Shakespeare as one of several possible writers for the anonymous play, but other than that the Shakespeare attribution has rarely been taken seriously. Hamilton argued, with passion but little rigour, that the manuscript was in Shakespeare's handwriting, and that the play was the lost Shakespeare/Fletcher collaboration. His attribution has not been accepted by the academic community, which almost unanimously accepts the attribution of the play to Thomas Middleton (though it's fair to mention that Eric Rasmussen did make a case for Shakespeare's involvement a while ago, an argument that likewise received little attention). The presentation of this production as an "alternative text" for Cardenio is misleading, suggesting that the relationship between this play and the current production at Stratford is akin to that between the different versions of Hamlet. Even though the attribution to Shakespeare has been roundly refuted, the company continued to present the play as potentially Shakespeare's in order to attract publicity.
Size: 2372px × 3624px
Location: The Dell, banks of the River Avon, near Holy Trinity Church, Stratford Upon Avon, UK
Photo credit: © Maurice Savage / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: acting, aporia, art, avon, britain, cardenio, company, dell, england, fletcher, free, lady, lost, maiden, middleton, outdoors, performance, performing, play, royal, rsc, shakespeare, stage, stratford, theatre, tragedy, uk, warwickshire, william
