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Dr. Imke Lichterfeld: Negotiating the “Weak King Dilemma”

In 1973, Michael Manheim published The weak king dilemma in the Shakespearean history play, analysing flawed, indecisive, and unsteady kings whose status as courageous warlords can be doubted. In derision towards the belligerent Queen of Henry VI, York exclaims that in contrast to her, “Women are soft, mild, pitiful, and flexible,” thereby discarding her female values. Gender binaries have always been called into question but the spectrum between feminine and masculine has lately become the focus of attention. 
Female actors today raise their voice to claim parts formerly restricted to male colleagues. Disrupting conservative casting concepts against sexist preconceptions raises awareness towards power structures in the acting business. Transformations of traditional casting allow for fascinating staging opportunities. Directed by Deborah Warner, Fiona Shaw played Richard II in 1995 at the National Theatre. In 2016, Gillian Bevan portrayed King Cymbeline in their RSC production (Dir. Melly Still). In 2017, Betsy Schwartz was Henry VI in an all-female adaptation called Bring Down the House by the Seattle Shakespeare Company (Dir. Rosa Joshi). However, Richard II has been labelled “effeminate”, Cymbeline as “unreasonable”, and Henry VI as “milquetoast“. This reading would not speak of female empowerment. 
The theatre is a cultural construct, a configuration of contemporary society. Stronger characters have been cast with women. Additionally, production dynamics depend on ensemble interaction. Yet, the above castings seem to perpetuate the stereotype of a petulant, feeble, and emotional woman whose regiment must fail. If the Call for Papers asks whether “recurrences of early modern configurations of gendered power relations or their media representations be detected in present culture, politics, literature, and art“, then the answer must be yes – albeit in a twisted discourse of enablement. 
This paper would like to contribute to the discourse on equality in the performance industries concerning “weak kings” in Shakespeare.