The_Possibility_Of_Hamlet_Being_Female

The Possibility Of Hamlet Being Female The Female Hamlet The idea of a women acting has Hamlet is not incredibly new. In 1899 Sarah Bernhardt took on the role of Hamlet. Bernhardt was later deemed "tres grande dame." Today there is an organization known as the Los Angeles Women's Shakespeare Company (LAWSC) with casts plays (not necessarily Shakespearean plays) with all female casts. In 1995 the LAWSC cast Hamlet in an all women ensemble. It has been brought up that a woman playing the role of Hamlet will create a tension between representations of masculinity and femininity. In Elizabethan theatre, males were the only actors on the stage. In 1920 a female Hamlet was produced with the belief that Hamlet could never have been a man due to Hamlet's procrastinating tendencies. This comes from a Victorian interpretation of Hamlet that could trace its roots to Edward P. Vining. This example is clearly not an open, liberal casting of Hamlet, it is rather a sexist production that puts forth the idea that women are the ones who postpone and men are persistent workers. Fatma Girik's Hamlet of 1977 casts Hamlet as a female who is raised as a male. hamlet, shakespeare, female, women, playing, play, hamlet's, seen, role, plot, part, male, job, different, casts, bernhardt, actors, about, woman, winkler, think, theatre, sarah, read, rather, plays, one, never, masculinity, man, lawsc, issue, idea, femininity