Claire Hansen – The Conversation

Macbeth’s Scottish heaths may seem a long way from tropical Queensland, but there are points of connection. Unsplash/Matt Riches

October 11, 2019

Tropic of Shakespeare: what studying Macbeth in Queensland could teach us about place and shipwrecks

Claire Hansen, James Cook University

Seeking ways to engage students with Shakespeare’s Scottish play in far north Queensland, highlights disjunctions and surprising correlations between play and place.

Nikki Shiels in The Rover. Anna Kucera

July 6, 2017

Vivacious and unapologetic, The Rover’s 17th‑century feminism is painfully pertinent

Claire Hansen, University of Sydney

The Rover begins with 17th-century playwright Aphra Behn inviting those who don’t like the idea of a female writer to fuck off, setting the tone for a hilarious and utterly relevant romp through Naples.

We cannot help but remember Hamlet: it is iconic. Robin Goldsworthy, Ivan Donato, Philip Dodd, Josh McConville. Photo: Daniel Boud

November 9, 2015

Bell Shakespeare’s Hamlet reviewed: the same great themes in some strange new haunts

Claire Hansen, University of Sydney

Hamlet is a play that haunts itself. Its saturation into cultural consciousness means that watching a performance is inevitably a process of past ghosts and past echoes framing the current performance.

Sport for Jove’s production of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice is now onstage in Sydney. Sport for Jove

May 25, 2015

Review: The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare’s comedy of cruelty

Claire Hansen, University of Sydney

Sport for Jove’s The Merchant of Venice is a production of ourstanding clarity, making it ideal for students or perhaps even those who simply don’t often see Shakespeare in the theatre.

Kate Mulvaney’s Masquerade is a joyous, poignant adaptation of Kit Williams’ book for children. AAP/Nikki Short

January 12, 2015

Reaching for the sun: Masquerade at the Sydney Festival

Claire Hansen, University of Sydney

The opening night of Masquerade at the Sydney Opera House last Friday attracted a rather higher number of under-12s than might usually be expected for Australia’s theatre demographic – and it was a delightful…

Hugo Weaving’s Macbeth dwells on the isolation and introspection of one of Shakespeare’s great tragic leads. Photo: Brett Boardman. Sydney Theatre Company

July 30, 2014

Hugo Weaving reveals Macbeth’s weakness – and his unhappiness

Claire Hansen, University of Sydney

Sydney Theatre Company’s new production of Macbeth may draw attention for its star, Hugo Weaving, but the most powerful agent of this production is the theatrical space. Director Kip Williams has inverted…

The limitations of the theatre become the production’s emotional heart. Michele Mossop

June 16, 2014

Henry V meets the London Blitz and brings the house down

Claire Hansen, University of Sydney

Bell Shakespeare’s new production of William Shakespeare’s Henry V – which opened in Canberra on June 14 – interrogates the complexities of war through a unique framing device: its scenes are played out…

Did you get a card for the bard? Intrigue around Shakespeare the man continues unabated. Wikimedia Commons

April 23, 2014

To b‑day, or not to b‑day: what a piece of work is Shakespeare

Claire Hansen, University of Sydney

In William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, the conspirator Cassius bitterly describes the position of Caesar in Rome. He says: … [H]e doth bestride the narrow world Like a colossus, and we petty men Walk…

Love and war collide onstage in Sport for Jove’s production of All’s Well That Ends Well. Seiya Taguchi/Sport for Jove

March 31, 2014

Review: love and war in All’s Well That Ends Well

Claire Hansen, University of Sydney

Love is a battlefield. While Pat Benatar might have made this line her own in the 1980s, Shakespeare and his contemporaries were also familiar with the trope. Analogies between wooing and hunting were…

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