Performing Shakespearean Utopia: Queer Tools for the Declining Climate

Abstract

In Shakespeare's "As You Like It" there are examples of transformation in relation to nature. This queering of identity is based on a relationship to ecology. In reading these texts through a queer ecological lens it is found that language envisioning the future is deeply connected to that possibility for transformation. Thus futurity is found in queer ecology. Taking these readings of Shakespeare and applying them to performance theory, more sustainable and community-based theatre can be produced. Pairing critical literary readings and reflection on the theatre-making process, this paper argues that the utopic dreaming of the theatrical practice is best aided by queer ecological thinking.