Shakespeare and the Audiences of the Greek Traveling Actors

The examination of the social and performative fields of the first Greek Shakespearian performances in the nineteenth century reveals the com­plex process that led to the formation of the first Greek audiences, the as­piring bourgeoisie of the newly formed Greek state. In contrast to the exclusionist European vision of the theater sustained by the ruling elite of Athens, the practices of low class traveling actors and inexperienced Greek audiences generated an alternative popularizing aesthetics. The appropriation of Shakespeare in a semi-literate context of performance and reception at various theatrical spaces located within and outside the prescribed boundaries of new Greece succeeded in promoting an affir­mative utopian vision that expressed the collective yearnings of the Greek subjects at large for communal participation and European integration. The dissolution of the hegemonic associations that this position entails makes the social field of the nascent Greek theater a place in which a meaningful transformation of Shakespeare's dramas was possible