Face-To-Face in Shakespearean Drama

'Face to face encounters are the essence of dramatic art. This collection shows us that close reading - knowing the score - is the condition of possibility for theatrical performance. The essays here feature some of the freshest and most original writing on Shakespeare I have seen in a long time.'
Michael D. Bristol, McGill University

Explores the drama of proximity and co-presence in Shakespeare's plays

This book celebrates the theatrical excitement and philosophical meanings of human interaction in Shakespeare. On stage and in life, the face is always window and mirror, representation and presence. A distinguished group of contributors examine the emotional and ethical surplus that appears between faces in the activity and performance of human encounter on stage. By transitioning from face as noun to face as verb - to face, outface, interface, efface, deface, sur-face - chapters reveal how Shakespeare's plays discover conflict, betrayal and deception as well as love, trust and forgiveness between faces and the bodies that bear them.

Matthew J. Smith is Associate Professor of English at Azusa Pacific University.
Julia Reinhard Lupton is Professor of English at the University of California, Irvine.

Cover image: Ian McKellen and Judi Dench in Macbeth, at the Other Place, Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1976 ©Laurence Burns / ArenaPAL

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ISBN 978-1-4744-3568-0
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