Shakespeare in South Africa is undeniably linked to our colonial past but his universal themes and inherent humanity have seen his works authentically appropriated into African contexts.
On April 12, a new production of Hamlet opens at Theatre on the Bay that sets out to recreate the earliest known performance of Shakespeare in South Africa.
On September 5, 1607, while Shakespeare was very much alive and writing Antony and Cleopatra, William Keeling, captain of the British East India ship, Red Dragon wrote in his journal: “We had The Tragedy of Hamlet: and in the afternoon, we went altogether ashore, to see if we could shoot an elephant.”
This historic performance, off the coast of Sierra Leone is now regarded as the first performance of a Shakespeare play outside Europe.
This performance of Hamlet was acted by Keeling’s sailors in the presence of African merchants, chiefs and a Portuguese translator.
Three weeks later, Keeling logged that his sailors performed Shakespeare’s Richard II during the journey between Sierra Leone and the Cape of Good Hope.
A second performance of Hamlet is noted by Keeling on March 31, 1608 off the east coast of South Africa. Here, the play was performed in the presence of Captain Hawkins.
Captain Keeling’s journal entry on the same day reads: “I invited Captain Hawkins to a fish dinner, and had Hamlet acted aboard, which I permit to keep my people from idleness and unlawful games, or sleep.”
This performance, serves as the inspiration for the forthcoming Hamlet at Theatre on the Bay.
In many ways, Hamlet seems an ideal play for maritime performance – Gertrude refers to Hamlet being “Mad as the seas and wind when both contend/Which is the mightier”, Laertes is told by his father that “the wind sits in the shoulder of your sail” and Ophelia “mermaid-like” floats in her final moments before she is pulled to a “muddy death”.
In the following centuries, as the British Empire’s influence spread across the globe so, too, did the influence of its national poet.
In 1799 Hamlet was performed by British soldiers at the newly built Fort Frederick in Port Elizabeth. Prior to the opening of South Africa’s first custom-built theatre, the Cape Town Gazette announced: “Theatricals being on the eve of being introduced into this colony and of course the customary honour being paid to our Immortal Bard, it will open with one of his pieces” and so, the African Theatre (now St Stephen’s Church on Heritage Square), opened in 1801 with a performance of Henry IV, Part I.
In her book The Story of South African Theatre 1780-1930, Jill Fletcher points out: “ Henry IV was an apt choice. It was a soldiers’ play, presented by soldiers, to soldiers.”
During the 19th and early 20th century Shakespeare in South Africa was mostly presented by touring companies from Britain. Some of these visiting artists would relocate and leave a lasting impression on South African theatre. The most prominent Shakespearean, of this period, to settle in South Africa, was the handsome, dynamic, young, actor-manager, Leonard Rayne. He would star in and present several Shakespeare plays during his extended career. His most ambitious season, his Grand Shakespeare Festival, presented in 1907 in Cape Town and Johannesburg, saw Rayne playing the starring roles in Hamlet, Richard III, Macbeth, Othello, Julius Caesar and The Merchant of Venice all within the space of a single week.
With the emergence of indigenous professional theatre in South Africa, from the mid-20th century onwards, certain individuals and organisations would play a prominent role in the presentation of Shakespeare on local stages. Individuals like actress-managers Cecilia Sonnenberg and René Ahrenson (founders of the annual Shakespeare-in-the-Park at Maynardville), and directors like Leonard Schach and Professor Robert Mohr would passionately advocate Shakespearean performance while organisations like the National Theatre Organisation and its successor, the four state-subsidised performing arts councils, Capab, Pact, Napac and Pacofs would often present Shakespeare as part of their repertoires.
Shakespeare in South Africa was not confined to performances in English. South Africa has a distinguished legacy of Shakespeare in translation. Founder member of the ANC, Sol Plaatjie, translated Comedy of Errors – Diphosho-phosho(1930) and Julius Caesar – Dikhontsho tsa bo-Juliuse Kesara(1937) into Tshwana. Sadly, Plaatjie’s translations of Othello, Much Ado About Nothing and The Merchant of Venice have now been lost.
KE Masigna translated nine of Shakespeare’s plays into Zulu and LE Mahloane translated Romeo and Juliet(1964) into Sotho. BB Mdledle’s Xhosa translation of Julius Caesar(1956) was the first African language Shakespeare to be performed. Mdledle also translated Macbeth and Twelfth Night into Xhosa. Welcome Msomi’s uMabatha(1970), a Zulu adaptation of Macbeth, went on to win international acclaim. Nelson Mandela would remark: “The similarities between Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Zulu history become a glaring reminder that the world is, philosophically, a very small place.”
Apart from his presence on stage, Shakespeare also featured prominently in the school syllabi of African countries that had once been British colonies. With the collapse of the British Empire, these former colonies set out to redefine their national identities and there was often a call to eradicate Western literature from syllabi. In 1989, the Kenyan government withdrew all non-African literature from the curriculum but President Daniel arap Moi (a former school teacher) intervened and insisted that Shakespeare be kept in the syllabus. “Shakespeare,” he said, “was a literary genius of universal acclaim.”
During the dark days of the apartheid regime, Shakespeare inadvertently became a prominent figure in our country’s fight for liberation. Struggle icon Chris Hani, famously said in a 1988 interview: “I was fascinated by Shakespeare’s plays, especially Hamlet… I want to be decisive and it helps me to be decisive when I read Hamlet.”
Professor Ashwin Desai’s 2012 book Reading Revolution, Shakespeare on Robben Island, tells the remarkable story of our country’s greatest Struggle heroes, including Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada and Sonny Venkatrathnam, finding solace in the words of Shakespeare during their incarceration on Robben Island.
Venkatrathnam disguised his copy of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare as a Hindu “bible” to prevent prison guards from confiscating it. The Robben Island “bible” was read and signed by many of these great men.
On December 16, 1977, as the ruling National Party celebrated the anniversary of the devastating Battle of Blood River, Mandela signed his name in Venkatrathnam’s volume next to the following passage from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar:“Cowards die many times before their deaths: The valiant never taste death but once.”
Mandela was known to often quote Shakespeare. In his memoirs, he recalls a rare meeting, during his 27-year incarceration, with his then 17-year-old son, Thembi, where father and son discussed Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in depth: “He gave me what I considered in the light of his age at the time, to be an interesting appreciation of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar which I very much enjoyed.”
In a recent interview Venkatrathnam said: “Shakespeare always seemed to have something to say to us… He’s a universal philosopher; there’s a message for anyone and anybody.” This seems to prove Ben Johnson right when he wrote that Shakespeare, “was not of an age, but for all time”.
Meyer is an actor, designer and along with Fred Abrahamse, a founding member of Abrahamse & Meyer Productions.