Stolen Thunder

Abstract This chapter focuses on atmospheric agency in Shakespearean performance. Through analyzing specific instances of Shakespearean theater history where weather events have coincided with dramatic performances in colonial settings, this chapter argues that the stage can provide a helpful tool for determining the implications of human agency in the age of anthropogenic climate change. It provides two examples of site-specific Shakespearean weather events in order to demonstrate how an ecological analysis of Shakespearean performance can attend to a more provincial geologic agency. One occurred during a production of The Tempest in the segregated colonial setting of Hamilton, Bermuda in 1950; another occurred at an 1892 production of Romeo and Juliet in Cape Town, South Africa, which coincided with a gold rush in the Witwatersrand basin. In both instances, the uncontrollable weather risks undermined the human intention of promoting Shakespeare’s cultural authority for his colonial audiences.