ABSTRACT
This article investigates recent trends and transformations in acting practices on British stages through a dialogue between contemporary performance and theatrical tradition. Using Hamlet as a privileged case study, it examines how acting styles in the United Kingdom have evolved in response to social, technological, and institutional change. The study combines analysis of significant productions — from David Garrick’s eighteenth-century performances to interpretations directed by Peter Hall, Gregory Doran, Lyndsey Turner, and Simon Godwin — with reflections gathered through interviews with UK-based scholars, directors, and practitioners. The article argues that contemporary British acting is shaped by a continuous negotiation between inherited theatrical conventions and the demands of a technologically mediated, culturally diverse performance environment. Recent developments such as inclusivity policies, the rise of physical theatre and live cinema, and the increasing use of microphones and digital broadcasting have profoundly altered both actor training and stage practice. While clarity of verse-speaking and textual precision remain central, contemporary acting increasingly privileges intimacy, naturalism, and cinematic realism. Through the case of Hamlet, the essay explores how performance traditions evolve in response to changing audience expectations, institutional structures, and the growing hybridity between theatre, film, and streaming culture.
BIOGRAFIA
Andrea Peghinelli insegna Letteratura inglese a Sapienza – Università di Roma e si occupa principalmente di Teatro Britannico; è stato Visiting Scholar presso la Royal Holloway University of London, Department of Theatre and Drama, ha pubblicato saggi e volumi su Shakespeare, sul teatro elisabettiano, sulle appropriazioni shakespeariane nel XIX secolo (Shakespeare in Burlesque) e sul teatro romantico inglese; alla drammaturgia britannica contemporanea ha dedicato numerosi saggi e un volume (Aspetti della drammaturgia britannica contemporanea) e ne ha inoltre tradotto e pubblicato diversi testi. È di prossima uscita per l’editore Marsilio la sua traduzione e curatela del Caino di Byron.
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