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Sunday, September 25, 2016

THE PAST IS PROLOGUE



 

The Past is Prologue forms part of UKZN’s Shakespeare Festival and is devised by Tamar Meskin, with Kamini Govender, Devaksha Moodley & Donna Steel. Meskin also directs the production.

What would happen if Shakespeare were propelled into a future not unlike our own, possessed of nothing but his own words, and finding himself in a world where his works have been reduced to museum-like artifacts of a great tradition?

What would happen if he was given the opportunity to speak to this present and in so doing shatter the glass that separates his works from his living audience?

These two questions are at the core of The Past is Prologue. Taking a whistle stop tour through some of Shakespeare’s most famous works, and reimagining them in performance, the production seeks to revitalize and ‘resurrect’ the theatrical Shakespeare, the one who made populist, mass-appeal theatre and would, most likely, be appalled (or amused) by the ‘sacred space’ his works now occupy.

Threaded through the play – and in the voice of perhaps Shakespeare’s most famous character, Hamlet – is a narrative of movement from past to present, from Renaissance England to post-apartheid South Africa, allowing the plays to speak to and for us in our time.

“Presented as part of the department’s Decolonising Shakespeare Festival and Colloquium, coinciding with the global commemorations of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, we hope the production will dust off these old plays, and make you think about them in new ways,” says a department representative.

Also as part of the Festival, the Robben Island Bible Exhibition is on display at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre, and the actual book will be there at the performance on October 1.

Presented by The College of Humanities (School of Arts) & Drama and Performance Studies, UKZN (Howard College) performances of The Past is Prologue take place at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre on September 30 and October 1 at 18h30 and on October 2 at 15h00.

Bookings through Claudette Wagner on 031 260 3133 or wagnerc1@ukzn.ac.za or Lori Barausse on 031 260 2380 or Baraussel@ukzn.ac.za.