Michael Walling: Welcome to this discussion, everybody. This is a bit of an experiment in creating an article with multiple voices, as a way of bringing together theatre-makers from around Africa and the UK in conversation. To introduce you to each other, round the Google table we have:
Juwon Ogungbe (JO) is a musician and theatre-maker, whose musical version of The Merchant of Venice performed at the 2012 (Harare International Festival of Arts) HIFA.
Arne Pohlmeier (AP) is the director of Two Gents Productions. He has worked with two Zimbabwean actors – Denton Chikura and Tonderai Munyevu – to create versions of Two Gentlemen of Verona and Hamlet. Two Gentlemen of Verona was performed in Shona at the Globe to Globe festival (London 2012).
Kate Stafford (KS) was founding director of Nanzikambe in Malawi and is currently Artistic Director of Bilimankhwe Arts in the UK. Kate has directed a number of Shakespeare productions in Malawi, including Macbeth (2004), Hamlet (2003) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (2005), and has worked as producer with both companies on Romeo and Juliet for the 2012 World Shakespeare Festival.
Dev Virahsawmy (DV) is a Mauritian playwright who has been prolific in translating Shakespeare's plays into Morisien (or Mauritian Creole), as well as writing his own contemporary adaptations of the plays, including Zeneral Makbef (1981), Toufann (1991) and Prezidan Otelo (2003).