Writer & Director, Fall 2024, King’s Crown Shakespeare Troupe

In Shakespeare’s plays, there are generally two options for daughters: get married or die. FEAR IT weaves together and rips apart the stories of Shakespeare’s daughters to reveal the constraints on identity when performing Shakespeare. The show itself uses only Shakespeare’s words, but deconstructed and performed with a new purpose. FEAR IT is a gutsy and dark depiction of how women must always be in a state of performing.

Cordelia, Goneril, Regan, Hermia, Juliet, Rosalind, Hero, Miranda, Perdita, Marina, and Lavinia perform conversations with their fathers, brothers, and lovers who are represented by an invisible, invading male voice. There is a clear fight against the role Shakespeare has written for the daughters. Their sense of “girlhood” has been prescribed by a 16/17th century white man and has not been expanded to recognize their modern-day identities. Through the daughters, both vocally and physically taking over the male voice, the ensemble of daughters show how they can break out of the male voice’s imposed performance of girlhood and identity. They can relate to one another and dispute the roles Shakespeare is making them play.

While the daughters found a way to escape their plays, Ophelia is stuck. Moving towards her pre-written drowning, the daughters attempt to take Ophelia out of her prescribed performance in order to save her. Is Opehlia “hysterical”? Or is she a woman caught between the dominant male narrative and the options presented by her fellow Shakespearean daughters?

The Columbia Spectator praised the production: “the play was intensely creative, dynamic, and entertaining. The cast and creatives brought a horrific tale filled with angst and sorrow to life in an immersive fashion. Shore’s direction was highly specific, and the script rendered each character with thought and care while providing enough easter eggs to keep any Shakespeare fan on their toes.”

One reviewer described the purpose of FEAR IT well: “Fear It demands that the female identity in Shakespeare’s works be re-examined and retold by new and empowered voices. These characters exist not only within the confines of their status and their scripts, but as symbols and role models of female morals, values, and identities. Modern interpretations can shed new light on and craft new dimensions for these characters–but what we should truly fear is a maintenance of the status quo.”