British Shakespeare Scholar to Discuss "Something Rich and Strange"

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Peter J. Smith

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Peter J. Smith, a prominent Shakespeare scholar and a regular reviewer of Royal Shakespeare Company performances, will deliver a lecture, “Something Rich and Strange: The Tempest and the Magic of Authority,” from 4 to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, April 12, in Room 209 of Kimpel Hall on the University of Arkansas campus. The public is welcome to attend.

Smith is a Reader in Renaissance Literature at Nottingham Trent University and has served as a visiting professor at the University of Tours, the University of Nebraska and the University of Massachusetts. He is the author of Social Shakespeare, co-editor of  Hamlet: Theory in Practice, and, most recently, co-editor of a special volume of the journal Shakepeare on the theory of theater reviewing. He is a trustee of the British Shakespeare Association.

In his talk, “Something Rich and Strange:  The Tempest and the Magic of Authority,” Smith characterizes the play as being strange rather than familiar. Not a late play about reconciliation and harmony, The Tempest dramatizes some of the problems of rulership and government under James I.  After showing how The Tempest differs radically from the masques conventionally shown at the Jacobean court, Smith concludes by talking about some modern staging and production decisions to demonstrate how the interpretation of the play itself is still far from settled. He welcomes questions and comments from the audience.

Smith will be visiting Arkansas throughout April in support of the ARCare Shakespeare Festival, a collaborative project of the Brown Chair in English Literacy at the University of Arkansas, Trike Theatre for Youth in Bentonville, and ARCare, a health-care organization based in Augusta, Arkansas. David A. Jolliffe, Brown Chair in English Literacy at the University of Arkansas, has been working with ARCare (formerly known as White River Rural Health Center) for the past four years on community literacy/community enrichment activities, and the ARCare Shakespeare Festival is the latest effort in the Augusta Community Literacy Advocacy Project.