Festival takes Shakespeare to new audiences

Young actors from 42 schools and drama groups will perform abridged 30-to-40-minute versions of Othello, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and other Shakespearean plays over three weeks in District Six.

The 14th Shakespeare Schools Festival South Africa will run from Wednesday May 8 to Monday May 27 at the District Six Homecoming Centre's Star Theatre.

"Shakespeare's stories are our stories,” says festival founder Kseniya Filinova, "and this year's theme opens up so many ways to share Shakespeare’s works and reach even more new audiences.”

Various performance methods are encouraged alongside the spoken word, including dance, physical theatre, song and more.

“Liberating Our Histories”, this year’s theme, encourages the participants to interpret Shakespeare's works through the lens of African heritage in a modern context.

The festival, which started in 2009 and is now hailed as Africa's largest youth drama event focusing solely on Shakespeare, has seen The Bard's works performed in Tsonga, Northern Sotho, Southern Sotho, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu and other African languages.

Over the years, the festival has worked with more than 13 500 pupils from 736 schools and supported 926 teachers.

Tickets, through Webtickets, are R140 each or R99 each for group bookings. After Cape Town, the festival will run in Johannesburg from September 3 to 8, in George from September 12 to 15 and in Durban from September 23 to 28. Email info@ssfsa.co.za for more information.