Martin Banham & James Gibbs 
African Theatre 12: Shakespeare in and out of Africa 

A key volume for Shakespeare, African theatre and postcolonial cultural scholars, promoting debate on the role of Western cultural icons in contemporary postcolonial cultures.


This volume takes as its starting point an interrogation of the African contributions to the Globe to Globe festival staged in London in 2012, where 37 Shakespeare productions were offered, each from a different nation. Five African companies were invited to perform and there are articles on four of these productions, examining issues of interculturalism, postcolonialism, language, interpretation and reception.

The contributors are both Shakespeare and African theatre scholars, promoting discourse from a range of geographical and cultural perspectives. A critical debate about the process of the Globe to Globe festival is initiated in the form of a discussion article featuringsome of its directors and actors. Two further articles look at Shakespeare productions made purely for Africa, from Mauritius and Cape Verde, and leading Nigerian playwright and cultural commentator Femi Osofisan provides an overview article examining Shakespeare in Africa in the 21st century.

The playscript in this volume of
African Theatre is Femi Osofisan’s
Wesoo, Hamlet! or the Resurrection of Hamlet.


Volume Editor: JANE PLASTOW


Series Editors: Martin Banham, Emeritus Professor of Drama & Theatre Studies, University of Leeds; James Gibbs, Senior Visiting Research Fellow, University of the West of England; Femi Osofisan, Professor of Drama at the University of Ibadan; Jane Plastow, Professor of African Theatre, University of Leeds; Yvette Hutchison, Associate Professor, Department of Theatre & Performance Studies, University of Warwick

Table of Content

Editors’ Introduction – Jane Plastow

Shakespeare, Africa & the Globe Olympiad – Femi Osofisan

The Two Gentlemen of Zimbabwe & their Diaspora audience at Shakespeare’s Globe – Penelope Woods

Shakespeare’s African nostos: township nostalgia & South African performance at sea – Colette Gordon

Itan Oginintin –
The Winter’s Tale: Shakespeare meets Yoruba Gods – Sola Adeyemi

Performing the nation at the London Globe – notes on a South Sudanese
Cymbeline – Christine Matzke

African Shakespeares: a discussion – Michael Walling with Juwon Ogungbe, Arne Pohlmeier, Kate Stafford & Dev Virahsawmy – Michael Walling

‘
Sa bezsominn Shakespeare la’: The Brave New World of Dev Virahsawmy – Ashish Beesondial

Crioulo Shakespeareano & the creolising of
King Lear – Eunice Ferreira

Playscript:
Wesoo, Hamlet! or the Resurrection of Hamlet by Femi Osofisan – Femi Osofisan

Book reviews

About the author

Jane Plastow is Professor of African Theatre, University of Leeds.