Global Shakespeare and Globalized Performance

One of the most significant Shakespearian developments in the past twenty years is the great expansion of productions in languages other than English, especially from Asia. Some of these productions have been seen internationally. Unlike the film industry, globalized theatre cannot rely on an existing method of distribution; rather, it is dependent on spectator travel, the willingness of festivals to sponsor visiting productions, and a general cultural interest in the foreign, all of which involve larger issues of globalization, tourism, language, and interculturalism. The pinnacle of globalized Shakespeare was reached in 2012 with the Globe to Globe Festival at Shakespeare’s Globe in London, when thirty-seven plays were performed by companies from around the world. Drawing on productions from Europe and Asia, this chapter treats the major complications of globalized Shakespeare performance, with some attention to Kennedy’s own production of As You Like It in Beijing in 2005 in Chinese.