Shake the Sword!

Tholwana Dyosopu is a singer-songwriter who has applied her musical talents to creating new versions of a series of Shakespeare's sonnets. She is the Resident Artist for 2026 at the Tsikinya-Chaka Centre (TCC) at Wits University. In this episode, the first of two instalments, TCC Director Chris Thurman joins Tholwana for a studio session to talk about her work and to listen in as she records some of her new compositions.

We kick off Season 3 with eminent South African Shakespearean David Schalkwyk. He talks to Chris Thurman about prison writing, Shakespeare on Robben Island, a new production of Twelfth Night at the Maynardville Open-Air Theatre in Cape Town, Uys Krige's Afrikaans translation of the play (Twaalfde Nag), and why David thinks Shakespeare is best performed without a director. Along the way, inspired by the fool Feste, there is music from Noël Coward and Jacques Brel.

In this episode, doyenne of the South African stage Fiona Ramsay sits down with TCC Director Chris Thurman as she prepares to perform in Blonde Poison at the Drama Factory. They talk about the role of Stella in Blonde Poison (for which Ramsay earned a Fleur du Cap award) and then get onto matters Shakespearean ... from Ramsay's recent appearance as Elizabeth / Caesar in Abrahamse Meyer Productions' Julius Caesar to her work with students in Wits University's Theatre and Performance programme.

Picking up where we left off at the end of Part One, this episode explores recent and ongoing creative practice involving translations of Shakespeare's plays and poems into isiZulu. Listen to extracts of performances by Anelisa Phewa, Michael Mazibuko and other translators and theatre makers. Along the way there is music, politics, history and more!Image: Anelisa Phewa as Sir Thomas More in SPEAK ME A SPEECH (dir. Victor van Aswegen)

We're back ... welcome to Season 2 of Shake the Sword! This new season kicks off with a pair of episodes on Shakespeare translations into isiZulu, the most widely-spoken home language in South Africa. In part one, we find out more about K.E. Masinga's Zulu translations, produced as radio plays in the "Sophiatown era" of the 1950s. Then we turn our attention to Welcome Msomi's uMabatha, the famous "Zulu Macbeth". The episode finishes with recent interpretations of speeches from uMabatha - looking ahead to part 2, which will focus on contemporary translations and performances in isiZulu.

Part two of our mini-series exploring Shakespeare in/and/from Nigeria. Director of the Tsikinya-Chaka Centre, Chris Thurman, introduces the TCC's partnership with the Drama Factory in Somerset West. Then we learn more about Shakespeare. Nigeria and "travelling tales" thanks to the expertise of Ifeoluwa Aboluwade, Lekan Balogun, Odirin Abonyi and Bernard Ogini. And of course there is more Fela Kuti!

Part one of another double-header, this time exploring Shakespeare in/and/from Nigeria. Director of the Tsikinya-Chaka Centre, Chris Thurman, talks to scholars, playwrights and translators who share insights into Nigeria's language landscape and Shakespeare's place within it: Ifeoluwa Aboluwade, Lekan Balogun, Odirin Abonyi and Bernard Ogini. Along the way, listen out for the musical genius of Fela Kuti!

In our first two episodes, we learn about translations of Shakespeare's plays into Kiswahili - a language spoken by more than 100 million people across eastern, central and southern Africa. Part two explores this topic beyond the prominent figure of Julius Nyerere: we discuss the work of his contemporaries and those who came after him, and the relationship between Shakespeare and Kiswahili today. Director of the Tsikinya-Chaka Centre, Chris Thurman, introduces two experts on the subject: Kimani Njogu and Serena Talento. You'll also hear snippets from Kenyan theatre company Bitter Pill and from musical sensation Sho Madjozi!

In our first two episodes, we learn about translations of Shakespeare's plays into Kiswahili - a language spoken by more than 100 million people across eastern, central and southern Africa. Part one focuses on the background to the translations undertaken by Julius Nyerere: liberation hero, political philosopher and the first president of independent Tanzania. Director of the Tsikinya-Chaka Centre, Chris Thurman, introduces two experts on the subject: Kimani Njogu and Serena Talento. You'll also hear snippets from Kenyan theatre company Bitter Pill and from musical sensation Sho Madjozi!