What does Shakespeare mean to you?


For many people, “Shakespeare” is a word that carries all the wrong associations. A source of high school trauma; a famous author whose work has to be studied even though it seems obscure. A figure who is simultaneously sacrosanct and irrelevant, profound but inaccessible, brilliant but boring. Shakespeare is also often linked to colonialism, elitism and “Englishness”.

But Shakespeare, in South Africa and around the world, can be much more than this! Shakespeare ZA is here to show you how.

This website is a virtual meeting-place, created to:

  • promote the work of South African theatre-makers, film-makers, translators, researchers and writers engaging with Shakespeare

  • keep people who are interested in Shakespeare updated with news of South African productions, conferences and other events

  • take academic ideas out of the “ivory tower”

  • help teachers to reinvigorate their methods and materials, and help learners to gain pleasure and new skills from their schooling

  • make “Shakespeare” start to mean something different in South Africa.