The footballer, the trickster and the dictator: disidentified national subjects and failed europeans in Nuno Cardoso's portuguese Shakespeares

Abstract

In the context of a proposed multi-speed neo-Europe where the wealthier nations are allowed to accumulate more wealth and the less wealthy nations such as Portugal are left to fend for themselves, this article looks at the staging of national stereotypes in Portuguese director Nuno Cardoso's Shakespeare trilogy (Richard II in 2007, Measure for Measure in 2012 and Coriolanus in 2014). Each of these performances examined the relationship between those who govern and those who are governed, using strategies of disidentification with stereotypes of the nation and national identity.