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1981
Volume 18, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 1753-6421
  • E-ISSN: 1753-643X

Abstract

Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith’s black comedy series, (2014–24), has adapted Shakespeare’s tragic and comic works. Examining the role of the early modern playwright in the series opens a conversation about the nature of adaptation, specifically televisual adaptation. A key characteristic of adaptation, equivocation, is prominent in the show’s adaptations of Shakespeare, ‘The Understudy’ (2014) and ‘Zanzibar’ (2017). Analysing equivocation in these episodes and in ‘The Trial of Elizabeth Gadge’ (2015), which extends the show’s interest in seventeenth-century England and, like , is an adaptation of history, leads to a consideration of how feelings of uncertainty are common among audiences of adaptation. This phenomenon is especially acute among the televisual audience, whose potential for engagement through streaming services, like BBC iPlayer or BritBox, magnifies adaptations’ defining qualities, most notably their palimpsestuous nature, reliance upon repetition and simultaneous presentation of similarity and difference. Together, these characteristics give audiences the feeling of being equivocated with, something which is both thrilling and unsettling much like the series itself.

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2025-05-26
2026-04-20

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/content/journals/10.1386/jafp_00124_1
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  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): Macbeth; Shakespeare; television studies; witchcraft; ‘The Trial of Elizabeth Gadge’; ‘The Understudy’; ‘Zanzibar’

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