Editor’s Note

Verily, hath I pondered oft, if the South African school curricula were not shaped by the English, would we still find ourselves studying the works of Shakespeare? As a tutor at Wits whilst I embarked upon mine master’s dissertation, I did instruct night classes to elder students, many exceeding mine own years twofold. Primarily, I did expound upon the works of Shakespeare, though I lay no claim to the erudition of the now late British critic, Frank Kermode, nor American critic Harold Bloom.

As most scholars of Shakespeare would aver, the profundity of the Bard’s work lies in this: though Shakespeare was firmly planted in his own age, his themes doth transcend, reaching across the ages and myriad circumstances, touching the hearts of folk from every walk of life.

The above is what happens when you feed your words into ChatGPT and tell the AI engine to turn them into Shakespearean English. Actually, bar the changing of a few words, the meaning comes through quite clearly. Is Shakespeare still relevant?

While trawling through some Google answers to that question, I came upon The Hip Hop Shakespeare Company, founded in 2009 by UK hip-hop artist, author and journalist Akala (Kingslee James Daley).The music theatre company explores the social, cultural and linguistic parallels between Shakespeare and hiphop artists. Akala’s mission is to encourage people to consider Shakespeare as approachable, instead of dated and elitist, and to promote hip-hop as an intelligent, poetic medium of expression.

Locally, Lara Foot, CEO of the Baxter Theatre, has adapted Shakespeare’s Othello, adding an African perspective. Writer Mary Corrigall saw the play and writes this week’s feature story.

Comments, criticism or praise can be sent to nagela@sundaytimes.co.za.