Saturday, May 21, 2022
OneClickFootball
  • Home
  • UK
  • Scotland
  • Wales
  • Ireland
No Result
View All Result
No Result
View All Result
Home Scotland

Decolonising Shakespeare: setting Othello in Ghana and Pericles in Glasgow

by
April 24, 2022
in Scotland
Decolonising Shakespeare: setting Othello in Ghana and Pericles in Glasgow

Chris Dorney/Shutterstock

Over the previous couple of years, the problem of decolonising the curriculum has turn out to be a rising concern for UK universities. This means recognising the legacy of western colonialism and rethinking the best way we train and analysis.

Decolonising Shakespeare, with its historic hyperlinks to English nationwide identification, language and tradition is a very knotty problem. Shakespeare was writing in a rustic that had begun to commerce in slaves simply two years earlier than his delivery, and the racist attitudes that enabled slavery to flourish could be seen in a lot of his performs. However, Shakespeare stays central to many nationwide training methods all over the world, together with nations with historic colonial hyperlinks to Britain.

Though profitable reinterpretations of Shakespeare exist, our efficiency analysis mission aimed to have a look at how actors all over the world might declare Shakespeare for themselves by together with particular points of native tradition of their efficiency. We wished to see what new which means this may carry to the textual content, after which use this method with our college students in Scotland.

The level of this mission is to disrupt and reposition the cultural narratives revealed within the conventional performing of Shakespeare’s performs, specifically difficult the concept notions of tradition, heritage and values “movement out of” the colonial energy and “movement into” colonised international locations.

Inspired by the Shakespeare Society of Southern Africa’s #lockdownshakespeare initiative, we established two key rules for our worldwide collaboration: all contributors ought to movie themselves on cell phones and all items ought to be filmed utilizing a neighborhood setting. As nicely as making the method accessible, it prompted these participating to rigorously take into account their location and its potential connection to the textual content.

The play’s the factor

In November 2021, below the steerage of worldwide Shakespeare skilled Ben Crystal, we invited Ghanaian theatre group Act for Change, India’s Salaam Shakespeare Naatak Company and Brazil’s Cena IV, together with our first-year BA Performance college students, to document extracts from Shakespeare’s works in their very own places, with complete freedom to adapt the language and setting.

An actor playing Iago on the streets of Jamestown Ghana.

Collins Seymah Smith taking part in Iago in Othello on the streets of Jamestown, Ghana.
University of the West of Scotland, Author offered

One of essentially the most attention-grabbing components of the mission was how the Ghanaian Act For Change group influenced and impressed a scholar group working in Glasgow. Jamestown, a coastal fishing district in Accra, is without doubt one of the oldest areas of Ghana’s capital metropolis and has lately been reinvented as a vibrant arts scene.

Working in a transformed warehouse from British colonial occasions, Nii Kwartelai Quartey and Collins Seymah Smith selected to discover Othello. They centered on the sumanj)le (suman-jolae), a big bandana-style handkerchief generally worn within the space. One of the potential origins of the phrase is “seaman jolly” and refers to a handkerchief given by a fisherman to his lover as an indication of their romance.

In Othello, the tragic demise of Desdemona is linked to a handkerchief, which Othello has given to her as a token of his love, symbolising her constancy. Act For Change recorded a brief extract from the play on the streets of Jamestown the place Smith, taking part in Iago, Othello’s jealous buddy (and villain of the play), is dressed as a neighborhood fisherman, carrying a sumanj)le and repairing a fishing internet.

In this fashion, they reference the entangled relationship between Iago, Desdemona and Othello by means of the visible metaphor of the fishing internet. By rooting their interpretation of Shakespeare firmly within the cultural context of Jamestown, new layers of significance are revealed that get proper to the guts of the play.

In Smith’s model, as Iago sits crafting the online of lies that may catch Desdemona, he does so carrying the sumanj)le. This offers the viewers a transparent visible picture of how she might be trapped due to her perceived unfaithfulness – she loses her handkerchief, however Iago encourages Othello to imagine she has given it to a different. His carrying of the sumanj)le connects to Desdemona’s handkerchief, decolonising the textual content by means of the usage of one thing that’s particular to the actor’s native tradition to spotlight Iago’s treachery and draw out the which means of the play.

The success of this method prompted Scottish college students participating to ask themselves what objects and places from their very own tradition could possibly be used of their variations of Shakespeare’s Pericles. One group engaged on Act 2 Scene 1 selected to reinterpret the fishermen who uncover Pericles washed up on the shores of North Africa as a bunch of lately unemployed Glasgow dock staff who discover a stranger within the River Clyde.

In the unique, it’s the invention of his father’s armour that leads Pericles to rediscover his function and serves to clarify to the fishermen that Pericles is a person of noble inventory. In the particularly Glasgow-updated Pericles, his protecting armour is modified to a life-saving bottle of Irn-Bru (in Scotland this vibrant orange drink is thought to be a necessary pick-me-up after an enormous night time out). Deciding to make use of this object, the group tailored the textual content:

It hath been a protect
Twixt me and demise; bangin’ hangover treatment.

Think international, act native

In each examples, the teams’ interpretations of Shakespeare give attention to objects that signify their native tradition slightly than the textual content itself. Neither group is nervous about whether or not the viewers perceive the significance of Irn-Bru or the sumanj)le. The objects as an alternative function the important thing to unlock the textual content – for the performers. By working on this approach, they’re able to current extra present and related interpretations of Shakespeare.

Screen split into four showing separate scenes of Shakespeare being performed in four different countries, Ghana, Brazil, India and Scotland.

Four scenes of Shakespeare being carried out in Ghana, Brazil, India and Scotland.
University of the West of Scotland, Author offered

This method, led by Act for Change in Ghana after which examined in Scotland, revealed how improvements in Shakespeare efficiency within the international south adopted within the international north can result in sensible methods to decolonise Shakespeare.

Focusing on the native setting and tradition makes the works extra relatable to the actors and extra participating to international audiences by illuminating new layers of which means and introducing new methods of deciphering Shakespeare.

The Conversation

The authors don’t work for, seek the advice of, personal shares in or obtain funding from any firm or organisation that will profit from this text, and have disclosed no related affiliations past their educational appointment.

ShareTweetShare

RELATED NEWS

Scottish election: Alex Salmond’s Alba gamble might but tip scales on second independence referendum
Scotland

Scottish election: Alex Salmond’s Alba gamble might but tip scales on second independence referendum

May 9, 2022
Divided Britain: north and south extra estranged than Scotland and England
Scotland

Divided Britain: north and south extra estranged than Scotland and England

May 8, 2022
Scotland: Why May election is essential for independence motion, and the UK – podcast
Scotland

Scotland: Why May election is essential for independence motion, and the UK – podcast

May 7, 2022
‘Brexit has modified individuals’s minds on independence’: Q&A with Kezia Dugdale, former Scottish Labour chief
Scotland

‘Brexit has modified individuals’s minds on independence’: Q&A with Kezia Dugdale, former Scottish Labour chief

May 6, 2022
Scottish independence: what’s at stake in May elections
Scotland

Scottish independence: what’s at stake in May elections

May 5, 2022
UK elections 2021: your full information to the May 6 votes
Scotland

UK elections 2021: your full information to the May 6 votes

May 4, 2022

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

MOST READ

Downing Street Christmas social gathering: political communication professional on 4 key takeaways from leaked Allegra Stratton video

Downing Street Christmas social gathering: political communication professional on 4 key takeaways from leaked Allegra Stratton video

December 13, 2021
France and the UK: behind two males scoring political factors are groups of diplomats behaving like grown ups

France and the UK: behind two males scoring political factors are groups of diplomats behaving like grown ups

December 13, 2021
Omicron: Britain plans to vaccinate 25 million in two months – however can or not it’s finished?

Omicron: Britain plans to vaccinate 25 million in two months – however can or not it’s finished?

December 13, 2021
Immigration: how Scotland sees itself and the way migrants really expertise it

Immigration: how Scotland sees itself and the way migrants really expertise it

December 13, 2021
Reintroducing masks in England could also be met with resistance – this is how the federal government can overcome it

Reintroducing masks in England could also be met with resistance – this is how the federal government can overcome it

December 13, 2021
Why are so few folks born on Christmas Day, New Year’s and different holidays?

Why are so few folks born on Christmas Day, New Year’s and different holidays?

May 10, 2022
  • Home
  • Disclaimer
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • DMCA Notice
  • Contact

Copyright © 2021 OneClickFootball | All Rights Reserved

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • UK
  • Scotland
  • Wales
  • Ireland

Copyright © 2021 OneClickFootball | All Rights Reserved