Catastrophe and Shakespeare in Love: Imitating Theatre

Subject:Catastrophe and Shakespeare in Love: Imitating Theatre

Both of these works we've looked at are similar in their most obvious sense: the fact that the plot entirely revolves around the production of a play. Interestingly enough, however, within Catastrophe, we see little of the presumably ongoing elements that compliment eachother in efforts to produce our current yet ambiguous definition of "theatre". Shakespeare in Love, however, goes as far as to show the entire theatrical process, which is both complete with production complications as well as reasonable historical accuracy. In doing this, Stoppard introduces both methods of play production seen in Shakespeare's time, as well as contemporary methods of film production. Strangely enough, the two approaches toward theatre production overlap significantly in respects to diction and plot. While some characters use different voices for the play production within Shakespeare in Love, the origin of their accent and diction are similar to that of the character within the film. Even moreso, the "inappropriate" nature of the two love stories also overlaps, as two young lovers both in play and film try to pursue their romantic interests in a created world in which such a relationship would typically be seen as impossible. Catastrophe, on the other hand, places emphasis on the spectacle aspect of theatrical production. For the entire play, the director focuses almost semiotically on the visual signs being transferred between the depicted character on stage and the audience. And accordingly so, it would be presumed that a director involved with the production of Catastrophe would spend a more significant portion of time in respects to the visualization of the protagonist as opposed to the other characters within the play.