Decolonising Shakespeare: setting Othello in Ghana and Pericles in Glasgow

Over the last few years, the issue of decolonising the curriculum has become a growing concern for UK universities. This means recognising the legacy of western colonialism and rethinking the way we teach and research.Though successful reinterpretations of Shakespeare exist, our performance research project aimed to look at how actors around the world could claim Shakespeare for themselves by including specific aspects of local culture in their performance. We wanted to see what new meaning this would bring to the text, and then use this approach with our students in Scotland.