The Bowdlers changed Shakespeare in the belief that his genius need pruning if it was to be enjoyed by women and children. We look at this--Bowdlerism--with distain. It is a distortion of art, a modification of its truth-- albeit for a good cause. You could argue that there is an obverse to this distortion: The effort to update the play to make it more relevant to the changing times. There is an undeniable parochial quality about this. Thus we have gangs in the New York streets where Romeo courts Juliet, a black actor plays the classic English King, Hamlet's father rules a commercial kingdom.
The poetic "Tempest" is an especially malleable form and last weekend I saw a performance done where the play was a dream of a terminally ill woman, "Prospera," as she came to grips with old relationships. The play is twisted so that all the characters, even Caliban, are women--and the bridegroom Ferdinand is ambiguously, and confusingly, played by a woman. The burden on the audience is considerable and some of the drama, of course, makes no sense. If Caliban is a woman, how does she sexually threaten Miranda? What is actually happening with Ferdinand and Miranda? (That said, the Arial actress--a part which has been increasingly played by women--was terrific.)
It is not uninteresting but, like all Bowdlerism, it is less than its original form and a paler version of the vison of a poet/playwright of exceptional quality.
After all, his was a universal vision.
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