Jubilee
By: Peter Barnes
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: 2001
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Format: [electronic resource] /
Number of pages: 100
Subjects: Drama; Stage history; Drama festivals
Description: First produced at the Swan Theatre, Stratford, in 2001 as an RSC commission, 'Jubilee' is a mischievous comedy on the cynical foundation of the Shakespeare industry.  In 1769, the David Garrick is approached by greedy Stratfordian burghers and talked into staging the first theatre festival to celebrate the life of their town's most famous son by having it pointed out to him that founding the cult of Shakespeare will make him even more famous, as well as giving RSC directors something to do. The Jubilee itself was a soggy catastrophe, providing Barnes with ample material for comic exuberance, but he marks it as the starting point of a cultural obsession that deserves some light-hearted ridicule. Barnes' ironic and irreverent comedy dissects the cult of the theatrical personality.