Enter the Body

January 16, 2023
Focusing primarily on Cordelia, Juliet, and Ophelia, McCullough (Great or Nothing) excavates the inner lives of William Shakespeare’s most famous tragic heroines in this absorbing experimental novel in verse. Beneath the trap door of a theater, the characters—portrayed as ghosts—share their secrets and traumas with one another while waiting to be resurrected to embody their assigned roles and die on stage each night. The author addresses the absent mothers and lack of education the women faced throughout their lives, as well as their roles as scapegoats for the poor behavior of their stories’ male leads, through assorted methods. Wrenching poetic monologues (“Mother found/ less love than I/ in the House of Capulet”), script pages of illuminating dialogue (“I have a question?” Juliet asks Cordelia, who responds, “Oh. We’re talking now?”), and prose that briefly foregrounds a larger contemporary world beyond the trap door (“the audience stretches, unwraps candy, checks their phones”) provide searing, if occasionally pedantic, commentary on the women’s portrayal as docile figures. Via varied signature poetic styles and cadences, such as Cordelia’s traditional iambic pentameter and Juliet’s short staccato bursts, the women question their desires and sexual identities, and together process their individual traumas. Ages 14–up. Agent: Jim McCarthy, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret.

Starred review from April 1, 2023

Gr 9 Up-"I love Shakespeare," McCullough points out in her author's note, but "he was far from infallible. There is much to criticize in his plays." Reminiscent of Caryl Churchill's iconic drama, Top Girls, McCullough spotlights four of the Bard's best-known dead teen girls-Juliet (13), Ophelia (15), Cordelia (17), and Lavinia (19), who was mutilated into eternal silence and still can't speak here, but McCullough ensures she's heard. The setting is "the trap room beneath all the stages, anywhere." McCullough herself directs, enabling her characters, explicating scenes for her audiences. Lohman is an emotional, energetic Juliet, a pawn in an unforgiving family feud; Villarreal a soft, lyrical Ophelia misled by fickle Hamlet; Annie Q a wise-beyond-her-years Cordelia fatally betrayed by her own father and sisters. VERDICT An undeniably powerful quartet delivers a reclamatory, empowering performance.

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