Melissa Merchant

In October 2023, an ABC Australia article by Levy and Heaton discussed the ‘gender gap’ in electric vehicle (EV) ownership, noting Australia’s similarity to the United States. where reportedly 67% of EV buyers were men and 33% were women. In Western Australia (WA), Evenergi’s 2023 survey revealed that 83% of the survey’s EV owning respondents were male. Such data suggest a noticeable gender discrepancy in EV ownership, which may be more prominent in WA. Through ten in-depth interviews with female-identifying WA-based EV owners, we sought to investigate this imbalance further, particularly why it might exist and, how it might be overcome. This paper focusses on the everyday experiences and practices of our Perth metropolitan and regionally based interviewees to shed light on potential barriers or issues associated with EV ownership such as purchase costs, driving range, charging, interactions with others about their cars, the use of technology and media coverage, including myths and misinformation. Overall, our interviewees provided insights into how they adjusted to owning and driving an EV in Western Australia, a state known for its isolation and vast distances.

Since 2016, Western Australian-based company BS Productions have presented a series of adaptations and appropriations of the Shakespearean canon, titled Bogan Shakespeare Presents. This article explores how Bogan Shakespeare’s productions appeal to double-access audiences, examining how they facilitate engagement by inclusive and diverse audiences. In order to evaluate the Bogan Shakespeare productions, this article draws on theories of double-access audiences, adaptation and appropriation. With unique insights into Bogan Shakespeare’s workshopping processes, this article considers how each Shakespearean text has been adapted with two audiences in mind, Shakespearean enthusiasts and Australian ‘bogans’. It will outline the Bogan Shakespeare team’s creative process as it evolves from a base script, which is then workshopped and adapted during each performance in response to the audience. Ultimately, this article will explore the strategies, challenges and opportunities afforded by BS Productions while crafting performances aimed at double-access audiences.

This article brings together key texts and theorists from disability studies, which is a growing and vibrant inter/multidisciplinary field. It is an area of inquiry that has been evolving for the past forty years. It is important to note that, as part of the development of disability studies and in reflection of its global nature, there has been discussion and debate around terminology. Different countries, and therefore different researchers, will often use different terms and this is reflected in the sources included. This review includes seven sections, focusing on the most prominent areas of inquiry within the disability studies field: Overview, History and Advocacy, Disability Studies as Academic Inquiry, Critical Disability Studies, Intersectionality, Representation, and Cultural Disability Studies. Disability studies developed as a result of disability activism and advocacy in the 1970s and has subsequently become a fully-fledged area of research and study. Disability studies is not focused on curing disability, rather it examines the social structures that contribute to the marginalization of those with disability. Fundamental to disability studies is its history, which begins in the 1970s in the United States and United Kingdom with the fight for civil rights for those with disabilities. This time period also saw a rejection of the medical model of disability, which positioned disability within the body of the individual, and the rise of a “social model” of disability that emphasizes disability is created by social and environmental factors. The second phase within disability studies was its inclusion in institutions of learning as a field of academic inquiry. This led to a third phase, critical disability studies, which reconsiders what disability is and what it means for individuals and for society more broadly. Critical disability studies acknowledges divergences in approaches and theories and questions the social model of disability. Critical disability studies also advocates for a conscious inclusion of the intersections that have existed within the field since its inception, such as gender, race, ethnicity, and sexuality. Connected to intersectionality is representation, which is another growing area of disability studies. Representation looks at representation of, as well as representation by, persons with disability in a range of mediums including film, television, literature, and stage. Some theorists argue that the field has now moved beyond critical disability studies and advocate for a cultural disability studies approach, which acknowledges the complex nature of disability and considers the cultural practices and beliefs related to disability. Each of these themes traces the growing field of disability studies as it has developed and become more complex, highlighting the deepening understanding of difference and what it means to be human.

This special issue of the Journal of Intercultural Studies is titled ‘Performing Identity in the Era of COVID-19’, and co-mingles our current critical inquiries into the pandemic meaning of ‘performance’’ with our earlier research in global diasporas. While invoking our previous historical context of ‘the era of COVID-19’, we shift focus from migratory liminality to the many ways that we can re-think the notions of performance, performing, and performativity (and the nonperformative) in the context of the global pandemic...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, theatres around the world closed and performances moved online. Consequently, when the musical Hamilton opened in March 2021 in Australia, it was the only version of the show being performed live on stage anywhere in the world and was marketed as a ‘beacon of hope’ for the performing arts industry [Crompton, S. 2017, Francis, L., and Ky, J. 2021, Millar, L. 2021]. Hamilton’s story is based on White American grand narratives such as the War of Independence, nation building and a ‘bootstraps’ mentality, which have traditionally excluded persons of colour; however, the musical primarily features Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) performers. After its debut in the US, Hamilton was praised for its diverse storytelling [Clark, J. 2015. Gardner, E. 2015, Quinn, D. 2015.] and this narrative has been repeated for the Australian re-production. Through the lens of racial neoliberal inclusion, this paper explores the COVID-era Australian re-production of Hamilton, interrogating how diversity is performed and the impact the global pandemic has had on these performances. However, while the internal message of the show remains problematic, the depth brought by Indigenous performers in particular, marks a shift in Australian theatre culture.

American Movie Classics’ (AMC) popular television series The Walking Dead (2010–present) transports viewers into an apocalyptic zombie dystopia where the lines between safety and precarity, being governed and governing, or being alive and/or dead slip and change. Utilizing Achille Mbembe’s term “necropolitics”, the article explores The Walking Dead’s representation of governance and power in terms of individual and group security. While the zombie has been understood as the liminal figure par excellence, The Walking Dead’s non-zombie characters illustrate diasporic liminality as refugees, hovering on or near the threshold of death. The scale of suffering or prosperity is determined by who leads or governs. Frequently, those deemed “in charge” exercise power and control to discipline, to punish, and to provide security. The series offers a metaphor for the potential uses of power in biological, environmental, or natural disaster situations where survivors grapple with scarce resources and the constant presence of death.

William Shakespeare, as a writer and actor, has recently become a popular fictional character in different forms of entertainment. Conscious fictions of Shakespeare in popular culture have proliferated since the rise of participatory media. Shakespeare on Twitter (@Shakespeare) has more than 40,000 followers, while William Shakespeare (@WilliamShakespeareAuthor) on Facebook has over 16 million “likes”. In this, we can see a postmodern need to reshape Shakespeare in our own image, while simultaneously drawing on his cultural capital to either promote or challenge his work as “high” art. There have also been recent popular culture representations of Shakespeare’s actors. These representations operate as fictionalised accounts of the acting profession in Elizabethan/Jacobean England, drawing on our modern expectations and attitudes to appeal to contemporary audiences. This essay will examine modern representations of Shakespearean actors from the past twenty-five years, including the film Shakespeare in Love, musical Something Rotten and television series Upstart Crow. It will explore the existing frameworks and theoretical approaches used when discussing popular culture Shakespeare. This essay will also consider the fictionalised accounts of the acting companies as depicted in the texts. In doing so, it will examine the authenticity of these portrayals against what is known of actors and the acting profession in the Shakespearean era and address the desires represented by these depictions today. The essay will explore three common tropes evident in popular culture representations of Shakespeare’s actors. First, Shakespeare was a bad actor. Second, acting was a profession that others aspired to; this includes amateurs wanting to be professional and women wanting to perform. Third, males playing female characters was funny; the representations of theatrical transvestism in these popular culture texts are typically played for comedy today. Overall, this essay examines how Shakespeare’s actors have been represented online, on screens and in theatres in the age of participatory media.

It has been traditionally accepted that the first professional performance by an English actress occurred on December 8th, 1660 in a production of Othello staged at the Vere Street Theatre in London. The name of the actress who played the role of Desdemona in this production is not known, however many theatre historians have claimed that it was Margaret Hughes. Using archival research, this article explores the history of women on the Restoration stage to determine the importance of the Vere Street Desdemona and then conducts an historiographical examination of the case for Hughes as the first professional English actress. It looks in-depth at the evidence supporting this assertion and addresses the issues present in the existing historical analyses, ultimately showing that Margaret Hughes was not on the stage in London prior to 1668 and therefore could not have been the Vere Street Desdemona.

During the Restoration era (1660 to 1700), the plays of Shakespeare were routinely adapted in order to make them fit for the new stages and society in which they were being produced. Representations ‘femininity’ and ‘woman’ were re-negotiated following a tumultuous period in English history and the evidence of this can be seen in the Shakespearean adaptations. Theatrical depictions of women within the plays produced during this time drew on everyday discourses of femininity and were influenced by the new presence of professional actresses on the London stages. In a time before widespread literacy and access to multiple media platforms, the theatre served a didactic function as a site which could present “useful and instructive representations of human life" (as ordered by Charles II in his Letters Patent to the theatre companies in 1662). This paper argues that, on the stage, Restoration women were afforded three roles: gay, ideal or fallen. Each of these are evident within Thomas Shadwell’s adaptation of Timon of Athens.

During the Restoration era (1660 to 1700), the plays of Shakespeare were routinely adapted in order to make them fit for the new stages and society in which they were being produced. Representations 'femininity' and 'woman' were re-negotiated following a tumultuous period in English history and the evidence of this can be seen in the Shakespearean adaptations. Theatrical depictions of women within the plays produced during this time drew on everyday discourses of femininity and were influenced by the new presence of professional actresses on the London stages. In a time before widespread literacy and access to multiple media platforms, the theatre served a didactic function as a site which could present "useful and instructive representations of human life" (as ordered by Charles II in his Letters Patent to the theatre companies in 1662). This paper argues that, on the stage, Restoration women were afforded three roles: gay, ideal or fallen. Each of these are evident within Thomas Shadwell's adaptation of Timon of Athens.