Shylock in the Ḥaḍramawt?: Adaptations of Shakespeare on the Yemeni Stage.

in La rivista di Arablit, a. III, n. 5, giugno 2013, pp. 5-24.

Yemen and Shakespeare are not commonly associated with each other, yet a surprisingly rich and idiosyncratic history of Yemeni Shakespeare productions exists. This article traces that history, to contextualize a recent Yemeni adaptation of The Merchant of Venice, in which Portia appears as a masked Arab warrior, and Shylock as a Hadhrami cloth trader. In productions that range from a uniquely Yemeni Othello, its final scene re-written to punish Iago, to Yemen’s variegated adaptations of Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar, Yemen’s Shakespearean performances provide a powerful example of “glocalized” Shakespeare: that is, adaptations of the now globalized literary tradition of the Bard, refracted through distinctly local characteristics and concerns.

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This is an Article from La Rivista di Arablit - Anno III, numero 5, giugno 2013

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L’Autore

Katherine Hennessey |