Rowena Hawkins develops an analysis of the European Shakespeare Festivals Network (ESFN) as a productive, intercultural space that destabilises traditional hierarchies in theatre. This book argues that ESFN performances offer audiences opportunities to rethink, rewrite and, crucially, to 'network' Shakespeare through active and comparative spectatorship.

Hawkins explores the locations in which Shakespeare Festivals are held and the dislocations that occur when festival Shakespeares move between them, asking what it means to host a range of global Shakespeare productions in historically-significant locations, such as castles or reconstructed early modern theatres. She considers whether festivals hosted in such sites produce different meanings for festivalgoers than those hosted in modern theatre spaces. Using two audience research studies, Hawkins draws out interesting facts about what international Shakespeare festivals mean to those who attend them, what they can offer a divided Europe and how modern retellings of early modern plays influence and complicate local political contexts.