Using what you know about early modern English theatre, how do you think might these plays be commenting on their own performance?
1. Some of the most theatrical figures we have encountered so far are also agents of deceit: Iago, or Richard, or the Duke of the Induction to Shrew. We know that Shakespeare was thinking passionately about what it meant to perform and what power the theatre might have. Taking one or more examples of “putting on a show” in the plays we have read, discuss the related problems of performance, disguise, and theatricality. Be sure to be concrete: where do you see costumes or props; who behaves like a playwright; who is in on the joke and who is fooled? Using what you know about early modern English theatre, how do you think might these plays be commenting on their own performance? Do you see a moral (or amoral!) message in these staged performances?
