Paper Title: Handkerchiefs, fishing nets and Shakespeare: exploring adaptation and decentered digital practice in James Town (Ghana)

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

Paper Abstract

In this presentation, we discuss two digital artifacts created as part of our collaboration with the Decentered Shakespeares Network: Pericles on the Seas (2022) and Othello (2021). Using Shakespeare as a starting point, we discuss how the sea and James Town’s relationship to it act as both the anchor and primary point of departure for our adaptation of the text.  

James Town, an area of Ghana’s capital, Accra, is simultaneously a small fishing community, a thriving arts hub and part of one of Africa’s mega cities. As community arts practitioners with Act for Change and tour guides with James Town Walking Tours, we used our knowledge of the area to make specific choices about language, character and site that drew new meaning from Shakespeare’s texts. We explore some examples of this in our paper.  

In order to help illustrate how digital self-capture, site and language can enhance and deepen our understanding of decentered Shakespeare practice, this presentation has been prerecorded on the James Town coastline, from where the patchwork histories of colonialism, independence, culture and industry of the area are visible.