’Tis Pity She’s a Realist: A Conversational Case Study in Realism and Early Modern Theater Today

For some decades now the terms “realism,” “naturalism,” and their cognates have frequently appeared as pejoratives when used in connection with the performance of early modern plays. Realist and naturalist theatrical approaches to the early modern canon, many scholars believe, have twisted both our understanding of these works’ historical dramaturgy and our sense of their possible meanings within contemporary contexts. In the introduction to this special issue of Shakespeare Bulletin, Barker, Solga, and Mazer seek to complicate this critical narrative by reconsidering both realism’s past relationships with early modern drama and its potential impact on future performances of early modern plays via a dialogic exploration of our own, multivalent responses to just one production, Cheek by Jowl’s 2012 ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore. The critique of realism from within theater and performance studies in general and Shakespeare studies in particular has had many salutary effects, foremost among them the manner in which it has encouraged scholars and theater artists to experiment with new ways of thinking about early modern character, acting, and performance practice. At the same time, it is often based on generalizations that demand interrogation if we are more fully to comprehend the complexities of contemporary productions of the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. In this introductory essay, the authors strive to show that not one monolithic realism, but many realisms, have shaped and continue to shape the ways in which early modern plays are performed and experienced on the modern stage.