All the World’s On Stage?: Metatheatrical Presence of Indigenous Absence in Public Works’ As You Like It

Abstract

Public Works is a program of the Seattle Repertory Theatre that annually produces works of community-based theater in the effort to create “theater of, by, and for the people” built upon ostensibly anti-colonial practices. In this paper, I address the question: How does Public Works’ 2019 production of Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” resist, reproduce, and/or reimagine legacies of theatrical colonialism, as in line with the program’s anti-colonial intentions? I will perform a close reading of the script and video recording of the 2019 production of “As You Like It” in conversation with Indigenous, performance, and Shakespeare scholars to argue that Seattle Rep’s Public Works 2019 production of Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” uses metatheater in order to decenter Shakespeare as an authority over the production, instead positioning performers, audience members, and the theater itself as those actively reshaping the play’s meaning. This use of metatheater takes important steps to preempt Shakespeare from acting as an active tool of colonial violence, but becomes insufficient to convert the absent presence of Indigeneity in the production into a full presence, due in part to the lack of Indigenous voices onstage. By evaluating Public Works’ productions in terms of their relationship to colonialism and white supremacy, my goal is to further develop understandings of and frameworks for anti-colonial practices within theater spaces and the Western canon.