While New York may still be regarded as the theatre capital of the world, in the past few years London has given it a serious run for its money. A recent article on the Brit city touted its reinvigorated theatre scene, noting Shakespeare as a crucial component of that rejuvenation. Aside from its local impact, British theatre has lured countless American film and theater luminaries in the past five years while simultaneously exporting commercially and critically successful productions to the U.S.

Reading this, I couldn’t help but wonder if we as Americans will always be bridesmaids as far as Shakespearean productions go. We certainly aren’t lacking in creativity or talent, yet it still seems to me that British productions are always an implicit point of comparison. Either we’re trying to imitate the English milieu (right down to accents of varying degrees of believability) or we’re deliberately taking it in an “American” direction to distinguish ourselves. As an example of this, see the New Jersey production I recently blogged about. In addition to a mafia-esque setting, the lines were performed with New Jersey accents. In such productions, is a truly American Shakespeare possible?