Paper Title: Pericles on the Shore: Unveiling Shakespeare Through The Prism of Community and Local Dialect/Anchoring the Bard: Reclaiming Shakespeare Through Vernacular and Community

Originally delivered at the British Shakespeare Association Annual Conference, ‘Practising Shakespeare: new collaborations, expanding horizons’. University of York, 2025.

Paper Abstract

Somewhere in the colonial era, Shakespeare’s stories became a symbol of intellectual superiority, a tool for cultural dominance, especially in a diverse country like India. Our rendition of Pericles’ fishermen rescue scene in the Decentred Shakespeare’s Network’s digital production, Pericles On The Seas (2022) was an attempt to bring Shakespeare back to the people, amalgamating Mumbai’s fishing community, professional actors, and the words of Shakespeare’s Pericles.

In this paper I will explore the collaboration with the local fisherfolk, how we breathed new life into the scene, using a mix of Hindustani, Hindi, and Marathi. By letting the characters’ social roles guide their dialect, we highlighted the class dynamics that are as relevant in today’s India as they were in Shakespeare’s time. The fishing boat was our stage, the sea our backdrop, as actors and community members came together to recreate the scene.

Artistic perfection wasn’t our aim, authenticity was. The camera rolled, capturing the natural interaction between the actors and the community, the blend of classical text with local fishing traditions. What emerged was not just an adaptation, but a dialogue between centuries and cultures, where Shakespeare’s words found a new home in the heartbeats of Mumbai’s coastal community.

The real magic lay in the journey of the community – their curiosity about Shakespeare, their pride in their cultural contribution, and their transformation from spectators to storytellers. This is how we decolonise Shakespeare – through site-specific, community-based adaptations that bridge historical divides, honouring both the source material and local traditions.