John Barrymore, Shakespearean actor.

Title

Identifier

AAI9632215

identifier

9632215

Creator

Morrison, Michael Alan.

Contributor

Adviser: Judith Milhous

Date

1992

Language

English

Publisher

City University of New York.

Subject

Theater | Biography

Abstract

John Barrymore's Richard III and Hamlet, first seen in New York during the 1919-20 and 1922-23 seasons, stand as high-water marks of Shakespearean interpretation during the inter-war period. But although biographical studies of the actor and his family have appeared steadily over the years, little effort has been made to situate Barrymore's distinctive contributions to the acting of these characters within the broader context of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Shakespearean production.;This study aims to remedy that oversight by examining Barrymore's work in light of past and subsequent tradition. Barrymore was the performing member of a production team that included the director Arthur Hopkins, the designer Robert Edmond Jones, and the voice teacher Margaret Carrington; all sought to put an end to the idealized characterizations, elaborately realistic scenery, and formal, elevated speech and gesture that had typified bravura Shakespearean production during the preceding decades.;The productions were also a response to the tendency in America--increasingly in evidence for half a century--to view Shakespeare as a "highbrow" entertainment with little popular appeal. Barrymore and his production team aimed to prove that the plays of the traditional bravura repertory could be fresh and stimulating, not museum pieces or revered classics as they had come to be regarded. By presenting a revolutionary synthesis of the Continental theory and practice of Gordon Craig, Max Reinhardt, and Leopold Jessner, by reinterpreting Shakespeare's protagonists in light of Freudian psychology, and by introducing a more "natural" acting style, they revitalized the bravura tradition in America and restored dynamic, exciting Shakespearean performance and production to the Broadway mainstream.;This study documents the preparations for Barrymore's Richard III and Hamlet and provides detailed reconstructions of the stage business and a representative sampling of the critical response. Throughout, the productions are viewed in the context of the cultural revolution that swept across Western society after the First World War. Barrymore was emblematic of the theatrical changes that accompanied the post-war rebellion against Victorian and Edwardian values in much the same way that Edmund Kean had symbolized the Romantic revolution of a century earlier. His efforts, and those of his associates, were a response not only to Shakespearean tradition but also to the spirit of artistic reinvention that permeated post-war culture.;In retrospect, the importance of those efforts emerges clearly: Barrymore and his production team were a revolutionary bridge between Victorian and modern methods of acting and producing bravura Shakespeare.

Type

dissertation

Source

PQT Legacy Restricted.xlsx

degree

Ph.D.

Item