Shakespeare in a woman's world
The Shakespeare Festival is kicking off in Redlands this Thursday.
It's a must see for a variety of reasons, but mostly because of the theme: Power women.
So topical, so contemporary, the greatest English language scribe of them all was centuries ahead of his time.
Click below for a preview of the story of how Cleopatra, Viola and Lady Macbeth were the forerunners of Western Civilizations greatest female leaders, including Jeanette Rankin (pictured below), the Montana Congresswoman and pacifist who was a woman in Congress before the country even guaranteed women the right to vote.
PERFORMANCES:
"Twelfth Night," May 8, 11, 17, 23
"Macbeth," May 9, 15, 18, 24
"Antony & Cleopatra," May 10, 16, 22, 25
All performances begin at 8 p.m. at Redlands Bowl, Eureka Avenue and Vine Street.
For information and to get times for lectures and other Shakespeare related events, call: (909) 335-7377.
REDLANDS - Before Hillary Clinton or Nancy Pelosi. Before Diane Feinstein or Jeanette Rankin, the first woman elected to Congress.
Before Magda Lawson was elected San Bernardino County's first female supervisor in 1952.
Before the right to vote was extended to women in this country (1920, with passage of the 19th Amendment), driven, passionate and cunning women wielded political power -- albeit often with tragic consequences -- in the pages of the greatest scribe of the English-speaking world.
The gender-bending Viola of "Twelfth Night," the intoxicating Cleopatra, ruler of Egypt, in "Antony and Cleopatra," and the ambitious, tragic Lady MacBeth, all served as unforgettable women of power in William Shakespeare's early 17th-century plays.
Beginning tonight and running through May 25, the Redlands Shakespeare Festival will present nightly performances of three of the master playwright's works that are among not only his most revered, but are his most progressive in terms of gender.
Dubbed "Season of Power" and touted with posters embossed with visages of female power players, this year's festival deliberately rejoices in the power of femininity in all its permutations, said Steven Sabel, the festival's founding artistic director.
"Shakespeare was really big on subtexts," Sabel said. "The subtextual nature of our theater season is power, feminine power ... I think any modern scientist would tell you that the female human is the most advanced creature to have ever walked the planet, and I think Shakespeare in some ways recognized that long before."
While it is true that no woman has yet led these United States, the history of Western civilization is replete with strong female leaders in fact and fiction.
The timing of this year's dominant-female themed festival seems particularly apropos, with a woman battling for the White House, the female ranks of Congress growing, and even local governments in San Bernardino County becoming home to more strong, smart females.
Women occupy 87 of the 535 seats in Congress, according to Emily's List, a national political advocacy group for women candidates.
Other signs of the extent to which women have gained political ground abound. While Clinton continues her uphill climb toward the White House, Pelosi became Speaker of the House in 2006, a position that puts her second in line for presidential succession - and thus the highest-ranking woman in the history of the U.S. government.
At the time, Pelosi famously noted she had busted through "not a glass ceiling but a marble ceiling" holding back women in Congress.
"It's an ironic coincidence that our event falls in an election season with the first viable female presidential candidate," Sabel said. "But at the same time, Shakespeare wouldn't be surprised at all by the women in power today. Some of the strongest characters in the Shakespearean canon are female."
In the Shakespearean plays that will run nightly this month free of charge at the Redlands Bowl, women play central, dynamic roles that were in some ways far ahead of their time.
Bruce Golden, professor emeritus of English at Cal State San Bernardino specializing in Shakespeare, said the playwright wasn't interested in advancing women's place in society, just in writing complex human tragedies.
"In 'Twelfth Night,' it's Viola who has to dress up as a man, in what is certainly a comment on the powerlessness of women as women during the time," Golden said.
Golden said the reality of women of stature having to overcome societal perceptions of them as more sensitive or matronly has contributed to the trend of "power" women often being tougher to compensate.
"Look at (former British Prime Minister) Margaret Thatcher," Golden said. "She's the modern archetype of the woman who has to be stronger than a man in order to succeed in a male-dominated world."
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