Multicultural Shakespeare: Translation, Appropriation and Performance
Multicultural Shakespeare is an international journal devoted to Shakespearean studies; it is a forum in which researchers, especially those from non-English-speaking backgrounds, can air local concerns and themes that contribute to the creation and understanding of Shakespeare as a global phenomenon. Initially devoted mainly to translations, Multicultural Shakespeare developed into a publication mediating vigorous discussions on the adaptation of Shakespeare’s texts, their ontology and cross-cultural significance. It created an opportunity to present the universal dimension of Shakespeare’s works by focusing on the local values found in the cultures of Australia, Brazil, China, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Holland, Hungary, India, Israel, Japan, Korea, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, and the USA.
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In Memoriam: Mark Sokolianskyi (1939–2025)
Afterword: IF Shakespeare UA. The First International Shakespeare Festival in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine, 17–23 June 2024
Theatre Studio of IDP’s Uzhik Production of King Lear, directed by Viacheslav Yehorov, staged at the Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon, on 14 and 15 June 2024
Working Title: A Collaboration Made in York
Exploring Object Afterlives: Ophelia. Subject Study at the 28th Gdansk International Shakespeare Festival, 2024
L_UKR_ECE at the Craiova International Shakespeare Festival, Romania, 2022
“Ha*l*t is a play about a play that never happened.” Notes on HA*L*T
Shelter from the Storm: Two Recent Shakespeare Stagings by the Ivano-Frankivsk Drama Theatre
This paper examines two recent Shakespeare productions by the Ivan Franko National Drama Theatre staged in Ivan-Frankivsk, Ukraine: Hamlet and Twelfth Night. The classic tragedy is directed by Rostyslav Derzhypilskyi, and the celebrated comedy by the actor Oleksii Hnatkovskyi, who also plays the title role in Hamlet. Both productions function as a shelter, in a literal and metaphorical sense. The Hamlet production opened in 2017 and became known for its use of a contemporary-sounding new translation by the Ivano-Frankivsk native, Yurii Andrukhovych, as well as the new basement stage adapted for the post-apocalyptic production. It soon literally became a bomb shelter, used as temporary housing for refugees from Eastern Ukraine, as a result of the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022. The staging of Twelfth Night as literally drama therapy in action consisted of a performance by Ukrainian soldiers utilising an abridged English text of the play. The performance served as a psychotherapeutic session and demonstrated the healing power of Shakespeare’s plays. The present article focuses on how this regional Ukrainian theatre has unexpectedly become a cutting-edge venue for Shakespeare performance and, more importantly, a spiritual and intellectual shelter for not only the audience, but also the performers.
Romeo and Juliet: From a Performance for Teenagers to an Innovative Dramatic Performance in the Time of War
The article offers an overview of the reception history of Romeo and Juliet in Ukraine. In the Ukrainian lands that were part of the Russian Empire, Romeo and Juliet began to be staged at Russian-language theatres at the end of the 19th century. In the Ukrainian SSR, the tragedy was performed in Ukrainian translations from the late 1930s. Leading theatres in independent Ukraine also adapted Romeo and Juliet. For instance, the Frankivsk Drama Theatre (2021, directed by Rostyslav Derzhypilskyi) staged Romeo & Juliet using Yurii Andrukhovych’s translation. Since the start of the Russo-Ukrainian war, this performance has been experimental in its spatial design and approach to the characters, reflecting the pain of the time.
“Hereafter, in a better world than this, I shall desire more love and knowledge of you”: Kelly Hunter on Art, Healing, Trauma and Working with Ukrainian Families. A Conversation with Darya Lazarenko and Imke Lichterfeld
Shakespeare, Trauma, and Social Change: Inclusive Ukrainian Theatre Projects (2019–2023)
This article focuses on the analysis of art-therapeutic, inclusive theatre projects in Ukraine that were based on Shakespeare’s plays and implemented from 2019 to 2023. The goal of these projects was deeply integrative: to draw public attention to people with disabilities, war veterans, and children whose parents were on the frontline. In addition, the aim of the theatre projects was to help these groups be heard, to provide them with the tools and a platform to tell their stories through archetypal, recognisable narrative patterns. The article explores the production of Twelfth Night, or What You Will based on Shakespeare’s comedy with veterans and volunteers of the Russian-Ukrainian war (‘Project W’), directed by Oleksii Hnatkovskyi, 2019; the inclusive project 12 Ophelia by the Kharkiv Arabesque Studio Theatre, 2019; and the production Monster Opera based on Shakespeare with children of the military, directed by Nigel Osborne, 2023.
The article discusses the production of Macbeth by The Taras Shevchenko Academic Regional Ukrainian Music and Drama Theatre of Cherkasy, Ukraine. Directed by Stanislav Sadakliiev, this production of Macbeth premiered on 27 January 2024 and paved the way for a new series of theatrical adaptations of the Scottish play produced during the Russian-Ukrainian War. The first part of the article provides a brief overview of Macbeth’s theatrical reception in Ukraine, while the second part focuses on the 2024 staging, including the translation used to produce the effect of urgency for Macbeth in Ukrainian.
The Precariousness of Human Existence in William Shakespeare’s Plays: A Ukrainian Perspective
The study of precarity has emerged as a new theoretical interest in the humanities in response to contemporary global crises such as military conflicts, terrorist attacks, the COVID-19 pandemic, ecological disasters, and climate change. In the Ukrainian context, where war and geopolitical instability remain ever-present, the exploration of precarity resonates deeply. This article examines the exploration of the precariousness of human existence in William Shakespeare’s plays through a distinctly Ukrainian lens. It engages with the ongoing war in Ukraine, the nation’s experiences of trauma, loss, resilience, and with the therapeutic potential of Shakespeare-related programmes. Drawing on Judith Butler’s theory of precariousness and precarity, this essay analyses how Shakespeare’s plays address the fundamental vulnerabilities of human life linked to health, race, and social inequities. It pays particular attention to the precariousness of human existence, with a focus on the realities of war, political power, and the system of government. The plays used in the analysis are Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, Henry V, Richard II, and Richard III. The paper concludes that Shakespeare’s exploration of precarious existence speaks not only to the fragility of life in his time but also mirrors the existential challenges faced by Ukrainians today, making his works relevant to both local and global audiences.
“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind”: Reading Vladyslav Yerko’s Illustrations to Shakespearein Ukrainian
The article comments on the intersemiotic translation of Shakespeare’s works in Vladyslav Yerko’s conceptual illustrations to Hamlet (2008), Romeo and Juliet (2016), and King Lear (2021), translated by Yurii Andrukhovych and published by the Ukrainian house A-BA-BA-HA-LA-MA-HA. The paper investigates the way in which Yerko’s richly symbolic visual narratives engage in dialogue with Ukrainian culture and history. Situated within a broader tradition of Shakespearean illustration, Yerko’s work exemplifies illustration as metatext. His imagery blends Renaissance allegory, surreal detail, and postmodern irony, reflecting influences ranging from Albín Brunovský’s art to Kozintsev’s cinematic Hamlet. The article demonstrates how Yerko’s visual interpretations, paired with Yurii Andrukhovych’s witty and provocative Ukrainian translations, create a multilayered conversation between Shakespeare’s England and contemporary Ukraine. By highlighting the dialogical nature of illustration as a form of adaptation and translation, the study contributes to ongoing discussions about the global afterlives of Shakespeare in new cultural contexts. Yerko’s illustrations reveal how visual arts reimagine the Shakespeare’s works as both Ukrainian and universal, reaffirming the vitality of printed books as sites of cross-cultural exchange, aesthetic reflection, metatextual play and deep reading.
Modernising the Ukrainian Language through the Power of Translation: Ihor Kostetskyi’s Shakespeare’s Sonnets
A translation project of Shakespeare’s sonnets undertaken by a prominent representative of the Ukrainian diaspora in Western Europe, Ihor Kostetskyi, aimed to reconstruct and revitalise the modern Ukrainian language through translation in the 1950s. Kostetskyi saw the creative laboratory of Shakespeare’s sonnets as a tool of transformative influence on the state of the Ukrainian literary language, which in the Soviet Union suffered from censorship and countless bans aimed at depriving and Russifying its lexical, grammatical and stylistic diversity. Most Ukrainian writers in the diaspora after the Second World War sought to reconstruct and develop the Ukrainian language. Kostetskyi’s formalist translation of the complete sonnets into a creatively stylised “Shakespearean” Ukrainian is the object of the present study.
Lost (in) Translations: How Ukrainian Shakespeareana Must Be Bigger Than We Think
This article delves into the complex history of Shakespeare translations in Ukraine, with a particular focus on the phenomenon of “lost translations.” These losses are categorized as either ontological (irrevocably lost due to destruction or censorship) or gnoseological (existing but inaccessible or underappreciated). The authors situate these losses within the context of Ukraine’s turbulent history, marked by periods of foreign domination, enforced language bans, and political repression. These historical forces significantly impacted the development and preservation of Ukrainian cultural artifacts, including Shakespeare translations. The study examines various forms of lost translations, including rare manuscripts that have vanished, rumoured but unverified ‘ghost translations,’ and stage scripts that were never published or have perished. These lost works not only represent significant cultural losses but also offer unique insights into Ukraine’s literary and cultural history. Shakespeare translations in Ukraine served as more than just literary works: they functioned as tools of resistance and avenues for creative expression during periods of repression. By translating Shakespeare, Ukrainian writers and artists challenged linguistic and cultural suppression, contributing significantly to the formation of a distinct Ukrainian literary canon. The article underscores the urgent need for rigorous archival research to recover and study these lost works. By analysing the cultural, political, and personal factors that contributed to these losses, the study provides a compelling narrative of Ukrainian cultural survival and its ongoing struggle for identity and self-expression.
Virtual Museum “#Hamlet_UA: Act 1, Scene 1943” in the Context of Decolonizing Knowledge about Ukraine
The article presents the history of the creation of the virtual museum: “#HAMLET_UA: ACT 1, SCENE 1943.” It emphasizes its significance for modern society in Ukraine and beyond, and highlights the features of navigation. The virtual museum elucidates the history of Ukrainian translations and theatrical productions of Hamlet in the 1860s and 1940s and demonstrates the importance of the first staging of this play in Lviv (1943, dir. Yosyp Hirniak) as a sign of resistance to both totalitarian regimes: Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union. The information gathered in the museum will help to refute the imperial myth created by Soviet propaganda about the secondary nature of the Ukrainian reception of world classics. The exhibition of the first four halls presents the history of the first translations of Hamlet into Ukrainian, carried out in the period between 1865–1943, as well as the biographies of the translators. The following halls are dedicated to the production of Hamlet, which was performed by the Lviv Opera House (now The Solomiya Krushelnytska Lviv National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet) during World War II. The museum has collected unique pictures, facsimiles of documents, posters, and newspaper articles. This helps to imagine the character of Yosyp Hirniak’s performance. Of particular interest are the drawings, cartoons, and caricatures made by theatre artist Semen Gruzbenko (real name Gruzberg), and the theatre reviews that appeared immediately after the premiere. The hall entitled the ‘Post-history of the play Hamlet: Scattered Around the World’ reflects the life stories of the creators of this production after 1945. The bilingual character of the museum speaks to the intended audience, as inclusion of domestic and foreign audiences in the tour of the virtual museum’s collections is designed to help strengthen the spirit of our nation in times of war and to decolonize knowledge about Ukraine abroad. The idea of this project, initiated by Maiia Harbuziuk, found active support from English scholars (Nicola Watson, Michael Dobson), and was implemented through the joint efforts of the Ukrainian Shakespeare Centre (Head of USC Nataliya Torkut) and the Department of Theatre Studies and Acting of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (Roman Lavrentii).
Britain, Shakespeare, and Ukraine Interview with Prof. Nataliya Torkut, Head of Український Шекспірівський центр [Ukrainian Shakespeare Centre; Ukraïns’kij Šekspìrìvs’kij centr] by Dr. Olha Kvasnytsia, journalist at the newspaper День [The Day; Denʼ]
As part of this special issue, we are delighted to host a conversation by the journalist, Dr. Olha Kvasnytsia, with Prof. Nataliya Torkut, the Head of the Ukrainian Shakespeare Centre and Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Shakespeare Institute of the University of Birmingham. The aim of this contribution is to highlight the intellectual and cultural activities of the Ukrainian Shakespeare Centre (USC), its history, conceptual foundations, and present-day mission in response to contemporary challenges and the shifting cultural and civic paradigm. The USC’s objective involves selecting appropriate development strategies, particularly in areas of scholarships, translations, and public education. Its mission focuses on overcoming entrenched stereotypes about Shakespeare, de-ideologising his image, freeing it from the remnants of “vulgar sociologism” inherited from the past, and revitalising academic Shakespeare studies in Ukraine. It also seeks to expand research through interdisciplinary approaches, foster international collaboration with global Shakespearean institutions, and promote the multifaceted dissemination of the USC’s achievements. This includes popularising Shakespeare’s works through various forms, establishing a dedicated Shakespeare Library, founding and publishing specialised scholarly journals such as Shakespeare Discourse and Renaissance Studies, creating the Ukrainian Shakespeare Portal website, and organising Shakespeare Days in Ukraine, among other initiatives. With the onset of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the USC redefined its objectives, using public communication tools to decolonise perceptions of Ukraine and Ukrainian Shakespeare studies, particularly through the organisation of the first Ukrainian Shakespeare Festival. The activities of the USC – and Ukrainian Shakespeare scholarship as a whole, both in mainland Ukraine and in the diaspora – serve as a powerful example of cultural diplomacy, demonstrating the presence of Ukrainian culture within the global context.
War-torn King Lear: Adaptation as Catharsis
Ukrainian director Vyacheslav Yehorov staged King Lear around war-torn Ukraine, and then in 2024 toured this Ukrainian King Lear to Stratford-upon-Avon (Royal Shakespeare Company; see Christie Carson’s article in this volume). Yehorov and Dmytro Hreshko collaborated in producing a film documenting the challenges and experiences of staging King Lear in such a context: ‘King Lear’: How We Looked for Love during the War. This paper examines the significance of King Lear as a refuge for Ukrainian communities grappling with the ravages of war, and explores how Yehorov and Hreshko’s adaptation serves as a source of catharsis. At the heart of King Lear lies the theme of seeking shelter, a resonant motif for communities impacted by war. The characters’ struggles for refuge mirror the plight of Ukrainian refugees displaced from their homes. The parallels extend further as Lear’s fragmented Britain symbolically reflects the fractured state of Ukraine, pervaded by loss and destitution. The paper traces Lear’s evolution from an isolated victim to a figure who discovers solace in human connections, mirroring the journey of many Ukrainians enduring hardship, as it is depicted in the film. By examining testimonies from the ad-hoc Ukrainian actors involved in Hreshko and Yehorov’s film alongside Lear’s development, the study seeks to shed light on how King Lear acquires healing powers for communities in distress, offering a portrayal of collective destitution and emphasizing the importance of solidarity, empathy, and love in adversity. Ultimately, Yehorov and Hreshko’s initiative is interpreted as a form of bibliotherapy on stage, harnessing the therapeutic potential of theatre to provide solace during tumultuous times. Through their adaptation of King Lear, the two Ukrainian artists offer Ukrainian audiences a narrative that reflects their experiences and fosters a sense of communal resilience, showcasing the enduring power of Shakespeare’s plays to heal and unite even in the darkest of times.
Introduction: The Global Origins of Shakespeare Studies
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“Shakespeare is a Finnish national poet:” Developing Finnish Shakespeare Scholarship from the Enlightenment to the Twentieth Century
In this article, I will take up the idea of “origins” as it pertains to Finnish Shakespeare during Finland’s time as an autonomous Grand Duchy of Russia from 1809-1917. While not technically the beginning of Shakespearean performances, the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries are the beginning of the rhetorical use of Shakespeare in public discourse used to establish cultural sovereignty distinct from Sweden and Russia. Beginning with a brief overview of Shakespearean mentions in the latter half of the eighteenth century, I will analyse the public discourse found in Finnish literary journals and newspaper articles in the 1810’s and 20’s. Following an analysis of J. F. Lagervall’s 1834 Ruunulinna, I will then briefly track how shifting attitudes towards translations such as those found in J. V. Snellman’s writings influenced the emerging Finnish literary and theatre tradition, most notably with Kaarlo Slöör and Paavo Cajendar’s Shakespeare translations and the establishment of the Finnish Theatre in 1871. Finally, an analysis of Juhani Aho’s untranslated essay in Gollancz’ 1916 A Book of Homage to Shakespeare will highlight the legacy of prior Finnish Shakespearean traditions, while also highlighting the limits of translation. Ultimately, I suggest that Shakespeare was appropriated early on as an accessible figure of resistance in the face of Swedish linguistic supremacy and the increasing threat of Russian assimilation and oppression.
Activist Discourse and the Origins of Feminist Shakespeare Studies
This essay reconsiders interpretations of Shakespeare by Irish writer Anna Murphy Jameson and the American Transcendentalist Margaret Fuller. Developing an informal method in which the voice of the female critic rallies in defence of Shakespeare’s heroines, they intervene in a male-dominated intellectual sphere to model alternative forms of women’s learning that take root outside of formalized institutional channels. Jameson, in Shakespeare’s Heroines, invokes the language of authentic Romantic selfhood and artistic freedom, recovering Shakespeare’s female characters from earlier critical aspersion as figures of exceptional female eloquence and resilience; she adopts a conversational critical voice to involve her female readers in the interpretative process itself. Fuller, in Woman in Nineteenth Century, speaks authoritatively as a kind of female prophet to argue that women’s creative reinterpretations of Shakespeare point the way to a revitalization of a sterile literary critical field. Both writers call for the reform of women’s education through revisionist interpretations of history attuned to the representation of female exceptionalism. In embryonic form, these nineteenth century feminist writings formulate a persistent strain of socially engaged, activist feminist criticism of Shakespeare.
Writing and Rewriting Nationhood: "Henry V" and Political Appropriation of Shakespeare
Shakespeare’s Henry V is often regarded as a nationalistic play and has been appropriated for political spin and propaganda to enhance the sense of national unity. Shakespeare captures the emerging nationalistic feeling of the Tudor era in Henry’s emphasis on national history and pride, but various parts of the text suggest a more diverse and complex figures of the king and his subjects than a war hero and the united nation. Such complexity, however, is often ignored in political appropriation. Laurence Olivier’s film adaptation during WWII glamorizes the war and defines the English nation as a courageous “band of brothers” through its presentation of Shakespeare’s play a shared story or history of national victory. Kenneth Branagh’s film in 1989, on the other hand, captures the ugliness of war but it still romanticizes the sacrifice for the country. In 2016, Shakespeare was made part of the Brexit discourse of growing nationalism at the time of the EU referendum. Brexit was imagined as a victory that will bring back freedom and sovereignty the country once enjoyed, and Shakespeare was used to represent the greatness of Britain. Shakespeare’s text, however, depicts the war against the continent in a more skeptical than glorifying tone. The war scenes are scattered with humorous dialogues and critical comments and the multi-national captains of Henry’s army are constantly at odds with one another. Shakespeare thus provides us with a wider view of nationhood, resisting the simplifying force of politics.
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Introduction: “With Such Perfection: ” Imagining Utopia through Shakespeare
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“Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company:” the American Performance of Shakespeare and the White-Washing of Political Geography
The paper examines the spatial overlap between the disenfranchisement of African Americans and the performance of William Shakespeare’s plays in the United States. In America, William Shakespeare seems to function as a prelapsarian poet, one who wrote before the institutionalization of colonial slavery, and he is therefore a poet able to symbolically function as a ‘public good’ that trumps America’s past associations with slavery. Instead, the modern American performance of Shakespeare emphasizes an idealized strain of human nature: especially when Americans perform Shakespeare outdoors, we tend to imagine ourselves in a primeval woodland, a setting without a history. Therefore, his plays are often performed without controversy—and (bizarrely) on or near sites specifically tied to the enslavement or disenfranchisement of people with African ancestry. New York City’s popular outdoor Shakespeare theater, the Delacorte, is situated just south of the site of Seneca Village, an African American community displaced for the construction of Central Park; Alabama Shakespeare Festival takes place on a former plantation; the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Virginia makes frequent use of a hotel dedicated to a Confederate general; the University of Texas’ Shakespeare at Winedale festival is performed in a barn built with supports carved by slave labor; the Oregon Shakespeare Festival takes place within a state unique for its founding laws dedicated to white supremacy. A historiographical examination of the Texas site reveals how the process of erasure can occur within a ‘progressive’ context, while a survey of Shakespearean performance sites in New York, Alabama, Virginia, and Oregon shows the strength of the unexpected connection between the performance of Shakespeare in America and the subjugation of Black persons, and it raises questions about the unique and utopian assumptions of Shakespearean performance in the United States.
New Interpretations and Adaptations of Shakespeare’s Plays in Japan from 2020 to 2023
This essay examines some notable Shakespearean productions and adaptations in Japan from 2020 to 2023. The main focus is on a Hamlet production by Mansai Nomura, a Kyogen performer, in March 2023; it was an amalgamation of the traditional Japanese theatres, such as Kyogen, Nô, Kabuki, and Bunraku. Mansai’s aspiration to produce Hamlet, utilizing all the elements of traditional Japanese art forms, began twenty years ago, when he played Hamlet in Jonathan Kent’s production in London and in Tokyo. He re-examined the text and offered a completely new interpretation of a scene, giving the play a fresh dimension. Moreover, this essay examines other recent Shakespeare productions and adaptations, including my two new plays based on Shakespeare, as well as Kôki Mitani’s Thirteen Vassals of Kamakura Shogun, a serial historical TV drama, broadcast by NHK (Japan’s version of the BBC).
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