shakespeare in townships in south africa

Shakespeare ZA expands its archive of video material” and that “this includes examples of Shakespeare performed in African languages”. In an article published in January 2020, reflecting on Shakespeare ZA as a project of the Shakespeare Society of Southern Africa that has, since 2017, sought to build a digital meeting-place for theatre makers, academics, teachers, students and members of the public interested in South African responses to Shakespeare, I wrote: “It is vital that. Undoubtedly, what had already been developing for some years as a hybrid stage-and-screen model will now become increasingly common: theatre for both in-person and digital audiences, combining the irreplaceable intimacy of live performance with the exponentially larger reach of filmed performance. Nevertheless, it is equally important to acknowledge the host of innovative responses that Covid-19 has solicited from theatre makers. It has also felt appropriate to bemoan the phenomenological ‘sameness’ of screen-watching, lending similar qualities to theatre-via-Zoom as to meetings-via-Zoom and teaching-via-Zoom. It has felt appropriate to grieve the temporary loss of live, embodied interaction between actor and audience that is at the core of the theatrical experience. As in so many countries around the globe, the South African theatre landscape was marked by the shift from stage to screen. We may mourn lost opportunities perhaps the most prominent example is the Fugard Theatre’s Hamlet, which promised to be a seminal production, although the devastation wrought on the performing arts sector by the closure of theatre spaces across the country affected hundreds of actors, directors, crew members and producers who would otherwise have been making Shakespearean magic. Yet it would also be remiss of me not to remark on the ways in which 2020 has affected Shakespeare in South Africa. It would be both brave and foolish to editorialise about 2020 – the year that spawned a million pandemic-informed think pieces – not least because, as I write these words, there are still a couple of months to go, during which time the international rollercoaster of political, public health, environmental and economic narratives is likely to complete more loop-de-loops.

Shakespeare in townships in south africa