Shakespeare's sonnets like you've never heard them before

Singer-songwriter Tholwana Dyosopu has applied her creative talents to produce a fresh take on some of Shakespeare’s best-known sonnets (and a couple that may be new to you).

Dyosopu, who took the highly-prized top spot on SA’s Got Talent in 2014 when she was still a teenager, launched her debut EP Warrior the following year. Her album 2.0.1.5 was nominated for a South African Music Award. An alumna of the National School of the Arts, Dyosopu pursued her undergraduate studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, where she is currently completing a Postgraduate Certificate in Education.

Dyosopu is the Artist in Residence for 2026 at Wits’ Tsikinya-Chaka Centre (TCC). In this capacity, she has produced an exciting series of musical adaptations of Shakespearean sonnets. You can listen to these tracks, along with a conversation between the artist and TCC Director Chris Thurman, in two recent episodes of the podcast Shake the Sword!

The songs and the interview were recorded in the Chris Seabrooke Music Hall at the Wits School of Arts and in the Wits Music Department’s studio. In the first instalment, Thurman and Dyosopu talk about how the project developed, focusing on Dyosopu’s first sonnet-song: “Dancing with Lies” (Sonnet 138, “When my love swears that she is made of truth,/ I do believe her, though I know she lies...”). Then they turn to the much-loved Sonnet 116, “Let me not to the marriage of true minds/Admit impediments” – or, in Dyosopu’s version, “I deny”. The episode finishes with “Night will come”, a poignant rendition of Sonnet 73, “That time of year thou mayst in me behold...”

Listen to Shake the Sword! on your podcast platform of choice:

In Episode 2, Thurman and Dyosopu kick off with arguably the most famous (and perhaps slightly over-familiar) sonnet of them all: Sonnet 18, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” Dyosopu explains how her song, “But then there’s you”, celebrates a loved one just as Shakespeare’s poem does but shifts into a slightly mournful mood.

Then it’s time for a change in gear as they tackle Sonnet 130, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”. Dyosopu interprets this as “My baby’s so basic”. She tells listeners about how she was inspired by a classroom conversation she observed during her teacher training, in which the school learners explored the difficult but urgent topic of beauty standards – and the pressures that these place on young women in particular.

The episode concludes with a fascinating insight into Dyosopu’s musical process, as we listen to her recording a series of harmonies to create an a cappella version of Sonnet 73: “When I lay my life down”. This one’s especially for fans of Pitch Perfect!

More schools’ Shakespeare in Johannesburg and Cape Town

Romeo and Juliet opens in Johannesburg, then the Shakespeare Schools Festival kicks off in Cape Town

Romeo and Juliet is widely prescribed as a school set work, but there’s nothing like seeing the play performed onstage! This new production at Joburg Theatre is directed by Campbell Meas. Learn more about the cast here. Book through Webtickets.

Shakespeare for school learners doesn’t only have to be what’s on the curriculum . . . Now into its sixteenth year, the Shakespeare Schools Festival South Africa (SSFSA) is Africa’s largest youth theatre festival. It features primary and secondary schools, as well as independent youth drama groups, giving dynamic abridged performances of Shakespeare’s plays. From 6-23 May, almost forty participating ensembles will gather at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town to present their work. Book via Webtickets.

Watch this space for information about the Johannesburg and Durban events later this year!

National Children's Theatre: ROMEO AND JULIET and MACBETH

Co-directed by Lucy Wylde and Devon Flemmer, this Shakespearean double bill is currently travelling to schools across Gauteng.

Calling all secondary school educators in the greater Johannesburg region:

Romeo and Juliet or Macbeth might be in the curriculum for some of your learners . . . or perhaps neither of these plays is prescribed . . . or maybe Shakespeare isn’t in the English or Drama syllabus at your school at all! Whichever of these circumstances may apply, learners can only benefit from the experience of watching live theatre. The National Children’s Theatre’s ensemble of intrepid “travelling players” is ready to come to you.

They promise to “combine deep understanding with innovative staging to ensure learners experience Shakespeare’s plays as living works of art that speak directly to their lives. From vaulting ambition and the corrupting pull of power in Macbeth, to first love caught in cycles of violence and division in Romeo and Juliet, both productions bring Shakespeare’s most urgent themes into sharp focus for today’s learners.

NCT’s professional cast gives these two classic tales a contemporary flair with bold performances, visceral storytelling, and the original language delivered with precision and power. Perfectly aligned with the English, Drama and Creative Arts curriculum, this double bill presents streamlined, high-impact versions of these renowned tragedies. Each production is punchy, accessible and dynamic, bringing energy and relevance to Shakespeare’s texts.”

For school bookings and further information, contact Nthabiseng Mmethi (email nthabiseng@nctheatresa.org.za or phone 011 484 1584).

There will also be public performances on 18 April 2026 at the National Children’s Theatre (3 Junction Avenue, Parktown). Tickets R100 each or R150 for both plays. Book via Webtickets.

The Complete Works (abridged!) at the Masque Theatre

F Creations presents The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) - a “riotous, fast-paced romp through all 37 of Shakespeare’s plays in just two hours” - at the Masque Theatre in Muizenberg, Cape Town.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) was written by Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield, the founding members of the Reduced Shakespeare Company. 2026 marks the 45th anniversary of the Company’s creation. The show blends clever parody with a genuine love of Shakespeare.

Award-winning theatre company F Creations celebrates its tenth birthday this year, proudly presenting The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) for a new audience. The present run reunites the three original cast members from F Creations’ inaugural production: Faeron Wheeler, Daniel Enticott and Kim R2. They may be a little older and wiser now, but they’re still ready to hurtle through the entire canon with irreverent wit, wild costume changes and hilarious audience interaction.

Faeron Wheeler is the founder of F Creations, and producer of award-winning shows such as Your Perfect Life and (extra)ordinary, (un)usual. F Creations has also produced short films, including taking part in The 48 Hour Film Project.  Kim R2 studied drama at Rhodes University and has performed in numerous community and professional productions. She is also the author of four children’s books. Daniel Enticott has decades of experience as a theatre maker and performer, as well as having made various radio and television appearances. 

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) is presented by arrangement with DALRO (Pty) Limited. No Under 13s.

Details of remaining performances:

1 and 7 March at 14h30

5, 6 and 7 March at 19h30

Bookings can be made at Quicket and at the Box Office at The Masque.

Review: Twelfth Night (Maynardville Open-Air Theatre)

“Nothing That Is So, Is So”: Jazz, Gender and La Dolce Vita as Maynardville turns 70

Zainab Gaffoor

Under the intoxicating fairy lights and the stars of the night sky, the Maynardville Open-Air Theatre celebrates its seventieth anniversary season with a production of Twelfth Night. Director Steven Stead’s fictional kingdom of Illyria is not a distant, mythical land of antiquity but a vivid sensory invocation of 1960s Fellini-esque Italy.

In a world of high fashion, cocktails and jazz music, a Dolce Vita aesthetic drips with the glamour of the silver screen. By transporting Shakespeare’s melancholic comedy to an era obsessed with image, celebrity and the surface, Stead illuminates the play’s central preoccupation: the friction between the curated self and the messy, authentic human beneath.

The production does not fight the outdoor elements; it embraces them. Greg King’s set design acts as an extension of the park, allowing the rustling trees and the skies above to serve as the natural backdrop for this fantasy. The wind rattles through the Maynardville trees, evoking our own storms of the Cape. The Sea Captain (Paul Savage) enters speaking in a recognisable Capetonian manner, a local guide in Illyria, bringing Viola and the audience out of the mythical sea and welcoming us onto familiar shores. While this is a neat touch, it is a solitary anchor for a production that otherwise drifts resolutely towards Europe. For Maynardville’s seventieth anniversary season, one might have expected a more rigorous grounding in the South African context, or perhaps even in the Global South more broadly. By holding back on integrating more local textures, this Twelfth Night misses the chance to truly claim Illyria for a South African audience.

The production’s intellectual and creative weight, however, lies in its exploration of identity and performance. At the centre of this is Emily Child’s portrayal of Viola. As Viola impersonating a male youth, Cesario, Child’s performance of masculinity is not an attempt to be a convincing man, but rather a convincing schoolboy: adopting a humorous widened gait and a stiff chest-forward posture with legs spread apart and hands in pockets. Child makes us aware of the labour Viola undertakes to maintain the façade.

Emily Child as Viola (photo: Claude Barnardo)

The directorial focus on the fragility of gender performance allows for a much-appreciated queering of the central love triangle, which feels both radical and textually supported. The chemistry between Cesario and Orsino is palpable, culminating in a moment (which drew audible gasps from some in the opening night audience) when Orsino kisses ‘Cesario’ while Viola is still presenting as a man. By having Orsino act on his desire for the person rather than the gender, this production validates the queer undertones of the text. It reveals that Orsino’s love is a genuine connection that transcends the binary.

While the production radically interrogates gender and sexuality, its approach to casting feels less adventurous. The casting is diverse, yet the distribution of roles suggests a lack of attention to racial dynamics. Talented actors of colour such as Ntlanthla Morgan Kutu (Antonio/Curio), Lungile Lallie (Fabian/Valentine) and Savage (Sea Captain/Office/Priest) deliver compelling performances in a variety of minor roles, yet they remain on the periphery just as their characters are lower in Illyria’s social hierarchy. In a production that works so hard to subvert the traditional gender binaries, the seats of power and romance within the play are occupied exclusively by white bodies. If the 1960s was a space of exclusion, a contemporary South African production has the opportunity to subvert that history rather than replicate it. A more representative casting of the central characters would have added a layer of richness for the South African audience.  

Michael Richard as Sir Toby Belch, Natasha Sutherland as Maria, Aidan Scott as Sir Andrew Aguecheek and Lungile Lallie as Fabian (photo: Claude Barnardo)

Jenny Stead’s Olivia is dressed in the height of 1960s couture, treating her mourning as a fashion statement. Her “veil” being a pair of designer sunglasses is a clever choice by costume designer Maritha Visagie. This brilliant modernisation of the trope of the unapproachable lady frames Olivia not as a recluse but as something like a celebrity hiding from paparazzi. Her infatuation with Cesario is played with a frantic, breathless energy that exposes the cracks in her composed exterior. When she yearns for our schoolboy, the comedy comes not from her foolishness, but from the collapse of her carefully constructed cool.

Equally compelling is Graham Hopkins as Malvolio, playing the uptight, class-obsessed, buzzkilling bureaucrat. Given the sleek, high-fashion aesthetic of the play, the production handles Malvolio’s sartorial humiliation with visual wit. In a world of black and white, his sudden appearance in neon-yellow stockings is all the more visually assaulting, with the garter truly selling the absurdity. Hopkins plays the moment with a deluded confidence that makes Malvolio’s humiliation sting even more.

Jenny Stead as Viola (photo: Claude Barnardo)

The physical comedy of the play reaches its zenith in the duel between Sir Andrew Aguecheek (a passionately silly Aidan Scott) and Cesario. Stead opts to replace the traditional swords with boxing gloves, a choice that fundamentally alters the stakes of the scene by transforming the lethal encounter into a clumsy, sporting farce. The fight choreography is deliberately inept, highlighting a meta-theatrical layer of performance within a performance – we watch Scott playing Sir Andrew, trying to play a tough guy, and Child playing Viola, playing Cesario, trying to play a brave man. The actors lean into the physical comedy, flailing and circling in a way that exposes their characters’ lack of aggression.

The true soul of this production belongs to David Viviers as Feste, the Fool. Viviers discards the traditional cap-and-bells for a sleek suit and a cigarette, opening the show seated at a piano like a lounge singer in a smoky bar. He is the MVP, the wittiest and most perceptive character of all, seeing through everyone’s appearances. Wessel Odendaal’s jazz scores act as their own character, stitching together scenes and being present as the emotional conductor, with Viviers being the vessel. When Viviers sings, the glamour of the setting fades, revealing the reality beneath the façade. In a world where everyone is performing a role, the fool is the only one telling the truth.

David Viviers as Feste (photo: Claude Barnardo)

The tension throughout the play is resolved in the production’s closing moments. Stead opts for a finale of unadulterated warmth – invoking the tradition of the concluding ‘jig’ in the form of a wholesome, collective dance sequence that serves as the wedding celebration for the three central couples: Orsino and Viola, Olivia and Sebastian, and the unexpectedly delightful pairing of Maria and Sir Toby.

Watching the entire cast move together is a restorative experience. It is a moment of joy that washes away the bitterness of the earlier conflicts, allowing the audience to leave the park feeling that, for these characters at least, La Dolce Vita has finally become a reality.

* Twelfth Night at Maynardville has been extended to 14 March