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‘But [We] Will Delve One Yard Below Their Mines/And Blow Them at the Moon’: Two Gents—‘Africa’, Shakespeare, and the Silent Revolution

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Africa on the Contemporary London Stage

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Abstract

This chapter is about us, a small London-based theatre company, our work on Shakespeare, our journey to the 2012 Globe to Globe Festival, how it relates to Africa on the London Stage, and how all this constitutes a silent revolution—written from the perspective of our director and instigator, Arne Pohlmeier. My aim is to highlight the ways in which our work shifts the term ‘African’ away from the traps of orientalism and neo-colonial discourse and towards an enriching and empowering discourse of cultural agency. The ways our work effectively shifts our audiences’ perception of what is African, what the term means, and what it contributes to both the act of performance and the lived experience of the audience will also be discussed.

Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 4, lines 209–210

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Since the writing of this essay (August 2017), Tonderai Munyevu has become co-director with Arne Pohlmeier [editor’s note].

  2. 2.

    http://www.ovalhouse.com/whatson/detail/vakomana_vaviri_ve_zimbabwe.

  3. 3.

    http://www.ovalhouse.com/whatson/detail/kupenga_kwa_hamlet.

  4. 4.

    http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/discovery-space/previous-productions/the-two-gentlemen-of-verona.

  5. 5.

    Magetsi was performed in June 2011 for two nights in double bill with Hamlet at the Rich Mix, then on its own for two nights at the Tara Theatre [editor’s note].

  6. 6.

    http://www.ovalhouse.com/whatson/detail/yours_abundantly_from_zimbabwe.

  7. 7.

    Kombis are privately owned minibuses used for public transport in Zimbabwe and elsewhere. The conductor is in charge of collecting the fare from customers.

  8. 8.

    ‘Stanislavski’s Active Analysis’, October 30, 2007.

  9. 9.

    II.3, lines 1–29.

  10. 10.

    ‘Image to Gesture’ workshop at the Young Vic, July 24, 2008; see also Slade 2010.

  11. 11.

    However, a scene in which Sylvia takes a kombi—driven by Sir Eglamour—to reach Valentine in the forest, is retained in the story to great comic effect.

  12. 12.

    Professor of Shakespeare Studies, King’s College [editor’s note].

  13. 13.

    http://www.twogentsproductions.co.uk/kupenga-kwa-hamlet.html.

  14. 14.

    Woods 2013 discusses the ways in which our productions instantiate an ‘aesthetic of responsibility (or response-ability)’ (14).

  15. 15.

    Brook replaces the Player’s Speech with a selection of texts in Ancient Greek and Orghast—a language invented by Ted Hughes for a production of the same name directed by Brook in Iran in 1971.

  16. 16.

    https://globeplayer.tv/videos/the-two-gentlemen-of-verona.

  17. 17.

    See Woods (2013, 22).

  18. 18.

    After our tour to Australia in 2013, Denton left Two Gents to pursue pastures greener and Tonderai took a hiatus from the company. A Two Gents adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew toured with new actors in 2014 and 2015, but the company fell silent in 2016 and 2017. Tonderai and I are working on reviving the company for our 10th anniversary in 2018 with The Moors, a new show exploring the black characters in Shakespeare told through the lens of two southern African actors seeking asylum in London. The show’s premier is at Tara Theatre, London, November 7–24, 2018. Check twogentsproductions.co.uk for details [see also note 1].

Bibliography

  • Mtwa, Percy, Mbongeni Ngema, and Barney Simon. 1983. Woza Albert! London: Methuen.

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  • Ngugi wa Thiong’o. 2012. Globalectics: Theory and the Politics of Knowing. New York: Columbia University Press.

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  • Slade, Laurie. 2010. Image to Gesture: Social Dreaming with Student Theatre Directors. In The Creativity of Social Dreaming, ed. Gordon W. Lawrence. London: Karnac Books.

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  • Stephanou, Irene, and Leila Henriques. 2005. The World in an Orange: Creating Theatre with Barney Simon. Johannesburg: Jacana Media.

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  • Woods, Penelope. 2013. The Two Gentlemen of Zimbabwe and Their Diaspora Audience at Shakespeare’s Globe. In African Theatre: Shakespeare In & Out of Africa, ed. Jane Plastow. Woodbridge: James Currey.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Two Gents Productions, London, UK

    Arne Pohlmeier

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  1. Arne Pohlmeier
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Correspondence to Arne Pohlmeier .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Tiziana Morosetti

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Pohlmeier, A. (2018). ‘But [We] Will Delve One Yard Below Their Mines/And Blow Them at the Moon’: Two Gents—‘Africa’, Shakespeare, and the Silent Revolution. In: Morosetti, T. (eds) Africa on the Contemporary London Stage. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94508-8_10

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