Attending A Full Nude Production

While many will agree that Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is critically acclaimed to be one of the most entertaining and well-liked pieces that he has written, there tends to be a discrepancy over how the characters in the play are portrayed when it comes to the importance of gender roles. After reading James C Bulman’s article over the Globe’s more recent performance of Twelfth Night and Shakespeare’s original written version, I realized that there are many ways that this famous piece has been portrayed and each has its own pros and cons.

Many, if not all, plays are written to evoke thoughts from people in the audience. Through their scripts, authors deliver messages about their opinions on various issues ranging from gender roles to class ranks. These messages are developed to provoke thoughts and questions from people who experience performances. In the play Rome Sweet Rome, the Q Brothers Collective use both new and old theatrical techniques to make parallels between the Roman and United States governments by addressing issues involving women’s roles in society, class rank, and homosexuality. The play uses methods both similar and different to other classic plays to deliver a message that is relatable to issues in today’s world. This message is enhanced through the use of acting styles, set design, costumes, music, and lighting.

On Thursday 29th September 2016, we attended a performance of ‘The Woman in Black’ at the Fortune Theatre in the West End, London. It was set in a traditional proscenium arch theatre which is situated on an enclosed street which applies to the horror genre and the idea of isolation. The size of the theatre was alarmingly small with compact seating, creating a sense of claustrophobia, suffocation and lack of escape from ‘The Woman in Black’. The stage seemed diminutive with the curtain, and the minimalistic set with old-fashioned props instantly set a Victorian impression. The minimalism conveyed how the actors could present a play without ostentatious props and keep the focus on themselves. The monochromatic colours of the programme enhance

“Bouncers” and “Shakers” by John Godber are two captivating plays that challenge gender boundaries and explore the concepts of the stereotypical male and female roles within society. Therefore, the aim of our company was to explore gender stereotypes and gender elasticity through our adapted version of “Bouncers and Shakers”. Thus, bring to light the gender boundaries by delving into the roles of masculinity and femininity with us the actors portraying few roles, as well as challenge the perception that females should play female characters and males should play male characters. Furthermore, as we have discovered from previous years of study, the work of practitioner/playwright’s Sarah Kane and Steven Berkoff offer a great flexibility of gender, therefore we looked into their texts, style and performances in our rehearsal process. On the same hand, we strived to create quite eccentric, melodramatic style of the piece, however still showing conventional and truthful characterisations. Thus, the experience we wanted to create for the audience was to make people relate to these stereotypes and raise questions about the construction of gender. We tried to achieve this by showing scenes from everyday life that everyone can relate to, for instance hairdresser saloon, barbershop, pubs and night life.

The pornographic industry has not lost their viewers, and the constant leaks of female celebrity personal pictures demonstrate that society has always sexualized women’s body for their pleasure. McRobbie states that there is a modern movement where women are free to choose for themselves. Females are choosing to go topless to prove breasts are merely body parts. Celebrities such as Bella Hadid and Rihanna walk the streets with see-through tops, making the appearance of their breasts nothing but a fashion statement. Many allegations are made saying self-exposing breasts comes from a lack of self-respect. The question arises, is it only acceptable for women to be topless for the pleasure of others? Not in the current pop culture world. Women are free to make their decisions, and they have decided their breasts are not to be sexualized. If a woman’s breast is out, she is doing it out of choice and for her

In Chapter 3 of his book, “Ways of Seeing”, John Berger argues that in western nude art and present day media, that women are largely shown and treated as objects upon whom power is asserted by men either as figures in the canvas or as spectators. Berger’s purpose is to make readers aware of how the perception of women in the art so that they will recognize the evolution of western cultured art.

For centuries, society has taught its men and women to behave in a clear way and to expect certain things from each other. Due to this, women have been placed second, below men, the submissive gender. Women have been taught to aspire to marriage, to not be too smart, to live their life according to society who tells them how to please a man. In fact, when women saw this degradation of themselves they decided to create a movement known as feminism, the social, economic and political equality of the sexes. Due to this standard of society passed through generations, an average reader would interpret Joan Murray’s “Play-by-Play” to be a poem about older women lustfully longing after younger men and fulfilling their purpose. However, if one were to delve deeper into Murray’s poem, it could be argued that she is taking a satirical approach to the way men objectify women. Marilyn French once said, “The same men who are blind and deaf to feminism are acutely sensitive to what threatens their dominance and privilege.” In looking at the symbols, diction, and tone in Murray’s poem, one can plainly see her disdain towards the societal standard and objectification of women.

As a sweeper in London, I am proud to say that I’ve finally been able to enter the Globe Theater to see “Romeo and Juliet.” Though the area around the theater has prostitutes and murders, that did not stop from the play being amazing. I had saved four pennies in a few weeks in order to watch the play. Usually as a sweeper, you would pay one penny and stand and watch the actors preform, but I was in fact able to sit with higher classes in society.

Voluntary, amateur stripping is a scandalous exploitation of women which should not be supported by feminists. Many women believe that unprofessional stripping is a choice that expresses sexual liberation, in which feminists have continually fought for. However, this is untrue for many reasons which include objectification by men and the degradation of the female human body. Ariel Levy expands upon this position sharing that though it is remarkable that the feminist movement has reached an age where women can express themselves, the advocated feminism movement does not associate “raunchy” and “liberated” as having the same meaning. Levy is accurate in alluding that women are being objectified by men when women strip and unclothe themselves.

The most prominent woman figure in this play is Linda, but the male characters in this play also give us insight into women’s roles and help feed the feminist analyses

I’m a dog, so I will talk about few examples of being naked in public from modern pop-culture.

“Theatre makes us think about power and the way our society works and it does this with a clear purpose, to make a change.”

The origin of this novel stems from a time with great attitude changes within the African-American way of life. Tensions between gender specifically had begun to emerge, women, who were thought of as subservient, belonging to the house as well as to their husbands. During the timeframe of this story, women had been beginning to emerge with dignity, grace, and authority. The play takes place in Pittsburgh, during the 1950’s when the gap between genders had been shrinking, as women had been introduced further into society as more than just mothers. To most, this diminishing gap, to most would be a seamless concept, however, to the characters of this play would be a deciding factor for many conflicting scenes. The main characters of this play

While women are stereotyped as weak and defenseless and want to be seen as strong without being called a “dyke,” men want are stereotyped as aggressive and apathetic but, the want to be able to show emotions and vuneralbilty without being labelled a “sissy.” Feminism illustrates that people are three-dimensional complex beings and not simple underdeveloped, plotless sketches. An example of why a balanced view of feminism is needed in society is Shakespeare’s play: Hamlet. While most could argue that Hamlet is a representation of a lack of feminism for women, it is apparent that by the end of the play the women have found the “yellow brick road” of feminism and are able to exploit and defy those that had recently oppressed them at the first

This idea is relevant because on the stage, the Restoration actress, is nothing but an ornament in the male gaze. This attitude is apparent as Thomas Shadwell links the new phenomenon of female performers with painted theatrical scenes, both innovative commodities for audience consumption: