https://lodel.appli.univ-poitiers.fr:443/shakespeare/index.php?id=845 Index des publications de auteurs Gabriella Reuss fr 0 https://lodel.appli.univ-poitiers.fr:443/shakespeare/index.php?id=3349 With the help of reviews and chat forum comments on Kenneth Branagh’s 1993 film and Tamás Puskás’s 2015 staging (Centrál Theatre, Budapest) this paper infers that Hungarian audiences tend to identify Branagh’s version of Much Ado as the « Shakespearean original ». Their reverence towards Branagh/Shakespeare has created a cult resminiscent of the Shakespeare cult in Garrick’s time. These Shakespeare-through-Branagh fans tend to favour traditional productions (such as Puskás’s) over more inventive stage adaptations, simply because they recreate the atmosphere and memory of the film. The mapping of reviews and comments betrays that both the staging and the viewing and consuming practices of Shakespeare(an plays) are more generation-governed than we might first think. The paper thus contributes to the analysing and understanding of contemporary popular reception that can best be described by such notions applied to the contemporary reception of Shakespeare as Zoltán Márkus’s hybridity and Douglas Lanier’s Shakespearean Rhizomatics. À partir des critiques théâtrales et des commentaires de forums en ligne concernant le film de Kenneth Branagh (1993) et la mise en scène de Tamás Puskás (Théâtre Central, Budapest, 2015), cet article montre que les spectateurs hongrois ont tendance à identifier le film de Branagh avec « l’original shakespearien ». Leur admiration envers Branagh/Shakespeare a créé un culte qui rappelle le culte de Shakespeare à l’époque de Garrick. Ces fans de Shakespeare vu au prisme de Branagh ont tendance à privilégier des mises en scène traditionnelles (comme celle de Puskás) plutôt que des adaptations scéniques plus inventives pour la simple raison qu’elles recréent l’atmosphère et la mémoire du film. L’inventaire des critiques et des commentaires montre que la mise en scène tout autant que le film et les habitudes de consommation du corpus shakespearien sont plus générationnelles que l’on pourrait le penser de prime abord. Cet article analyse le succès de cette mise en scène en utilisant des notions élaborées par Zoltán Márkus (l’hybridité) et Douglas Lanier (le développement rhizomatique) pour qualifier la réception du corpus shakespearien à notre époque. sam., 28 févr. 2026 15:46:19 +0100 sam., 28 févr. 2026 15:46:54 +0100 https://lodel.appli.univ-poitiers.fr:443/shakespeare/index.php?id=3349 https://lodel.appli.univ-poitiers.fr:443/shakespeare/index.php?id=839 William Charles Macready’s restoration of King Lear in 1838 was indeed a mythical production, which, sweeping Nahum Tate’s happily ending adaptation of King Lear off the boards at once, changed for ever the paradigm of both appreciating Shakespeare and acting King Lear for ever. Nonetheless, no matter how famous and erudite Macready was, or how illustrious his literary and theatre friends were, he had to go against the long tradition of Nahum Tate’s melodramatic version when he endeavoured to restore the original text. It is much less known however, that Macready experimented with the tragic plot and the Shakespearean text as early as in 1834 at his benefit nights to promising critical reception, and that Macready’s promptbook of the 1834 production exists in the Duke Humphrey Archives of the Bodleian Library. Having examined the author(s) and the handwriting(s) of this promptbook in earlier publications, in this paper I will shed light on Macready’s rendering of the title character in 1834 and in 1838 from his promptbooks. The way Macready acted the vigorous and energetic aging royal, and the way he performed Lear’s death attracted audiences of all ranks from 1838 throughout his long career and became Macready’s trademarks. As Paul Schliecke found it, Macready’s close friend Dickens used the material the actor thus provided him with in his novel, The Old Curiosity Shop, to depict the slow tearful deaths of Little Nell and her Grandfather. It was the momentum of an actor and the impetus of a production that re‑established both the Fool and the tragic Lear on British stages, challenging the taste of the contemporary audience, and setting the trend for European and American theatrical practices in the following decades. Macready’s 1838 performance, already shaped by his earlier attempt in 1834, transformed the reading of Lear, a title‑role which he performed successfully until he retired from the stage. mer., 22 avril 2015 16:29:55 +0200 sam., 28 déc. 2019 14:47:21 +0100 https://lodel.appli.univ-poitiers.fr:443/shakespeare/index.php?id=839