Melissa Merchant

This paper investigates the intersection of eco-dramaturgy, Shakespearean villainy and botanical precarity, exploring how Shakespeare’s infamous antagonists resonate with the extraordinary yet vulnerable dynamics of carnivorous plants. By examining the behavioural mechanisms of critically endangered Australian species, this interdisciplinary study considers how these botanical entities function as metaphors for survival, exploitation and environmental fragility. Drawing on ecocriticism and ecological performance studies, we propose that the behaviours of carnivorous plants, such as trapping and consumption, offer a compelling ecological lens through which to reinterpret Shakespeare’s calculating but also ambivalent figures within the play’s landscape. We consider the ways in which these characters’ strategies and power dynamics align with the captivating yet precarious existence of these plants, whose survival depends on both their agency and their vulnerability within delicate ecosystems. Through applying ecological textual readings, eco-performance and pedagogical methodologies, this research contributes to Shakespearean studies’ vibrant engagement with urgent ecological concerns. Discussion further reflects on the role of interdisciplinary creative practice in advancing environmental advocacy, artistic intervention and cross-disciplinary scholarship. This paper forms part of a larger project integrating botanical art, eco-performance and public engagement to reimagine Shakespeare’s villains through an ecological framework, amplifying awareness of endangered plant species in an era of ecological crisis.

Shakespeare classes within Australian universities are often filled with students who must take them as required units rather than through a genuine desire to learn about early modern theatre and its associated theoretical, historical, and textual contexts. Thus a challenge for university teachers is to engage students by creating innovative learning experiences that allow them to explore the content in ways they find interesting. Twinned with such engagement is the need to demonstrate how and why Shakespeare Studies retain critical import today through the plays’ themes, characters, aphorisms, significance in popular culture, etc. At Murdoch University, WA, we include three Shakespeare units in our English and Creative Writing major: Shakespeare and Contemporaries, Shakespeare’s Monsters and this year, a final year showcase production of Much Ado About Nothing in Acting and Producing for the Stage. Within these units, we have designed curricula, including topics, themes, texts, additional resources, learning activities, electronic resources, and student-centred assessments to meet the diverse needs of students from different majors (including English and Creative Writing, Theatre and Drama, and Education). In particular, we have introduced negotiated assessment as each unit’s final assignment. This paper thus comparatively examines the implementation of these strategies within these units. We focus on how negotiated assessments contribute to authentic learning, as well as how they fit within the Universal Design for Learning framework. To substantiate our specific strategies for Shakespeare Studies in our contemporary historical moment, our paper moreover shares examples of work produced by students, with their consent, from Shakespeare and Contemporaries Shakespeare’s Monsters and Acting and Producing for the Stage in a bid to elucidate how negotiated assessment can meet unit learning outcomes.