Two Women, Two Wars, Two Plays:Queen Elizabeth I and Lady Thatcher in the Theatre

Two Women, Two Wars, Two Plays:Queen Elizabeth I and Lady Thatcher in the Theatre

Müftüoğlu, Nilgün

Theatre does not only provide people with mere entertainment but also throughout history it has functioned as an effective instrument through which those in power impose their policies or playwrights vigorously criticize these policies. In this sense, Elizabethan drama, which is often associated with Shakespeare, played a significant role of endorsing the ideas and policies of a woman ruler, Queen Elizabeth I, namely maintenance of order and equilibrium in that particular period, whereas Lady Thatcher’s policies, one of the longest serving politician in British Political History, came under severe criticism from the prominent contemporary playwrights in the 1980s. In this paper, Elizabeth I and Margaret Thatcher are compared in terms of their portrait in the theatre by referring to two plays, Henry V and Sink the Belgrano!. Although Henry V is not a play directly about Elizabeth I, it celebrates Elizabeth I and her victory at the defeat of Spanish Armada. And Sink the Belgrano! directly criticizes Thatcher’s policy in Falklands War.

Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed

2010-06

718