South Sudan troupe sees new country’s struggle in Shakespeare

South Sudan Theatre Company performs ‘Cymbeline’ in Juba Arabic for the Globe to Globe festival in London to acclaim. The play resonates for them.

LONDON — Posthumus, the protagonist of Shakespeare’s “Cymbeline,” marched through the Herculean columns of the Globe theater, stopped abruptly at the front of the stage and looked up at an audience of hundreds — most of whom didn’t speak a whisper of the language they were about to hear.

His voice boomed, and he raised his arms and curled his hands into fists. “All these people have come from the newest country in the world,” shouted actor Francis Paulino Lugali in Juba Arabic, “and this country is South Sudan!”

And so with bells around their ankles, makeshift props and rushed rehearsals, the world’s newest country made its mark on the world stage when a humble but talented troupe performed “Cymbeline” on one of theater’s most hallowed grounds.

The show is part of a pre-Olympics festival called Globe to Globe running through early June. After it’s all over, the open-air replica of Shakespeare’s original theater on the banks of the River Thames will have hosted the playwright’s 37 plays by groups from dozens of countries in a kaleidoscope of languages.

They include: “Richard II” in Palestinian Arabic, “Macbeth” in Polish, “The Merchant of Venice” in Hebrew, “Hamlet” in Lithuanian, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in Korean and a hip-hop remix of “Othello” by the Chicago Shakespeare Theater.

For the South Sudan Theatre Company members, who earned standing ovations and four of five stars from the British newspaper the Guardian for their performance, the triumph is especially meaningful as their fledgling nation tries to emerge from violent conflicts that have consumed its recent past and threaten its future.

South Sudan formally separated from its northern neighbor in July, but the two countries are now sliding toward a ruinous war over their contested border and precious oil reserves and pipelines.

Many of those involved in producing “Cymbeline” earlier this month said the northern government has tried to portray the south as incapable of running its own country. They said the performance was a way — albeit a small one — to prove they could stand on their own two feet.

“As a new country, we want to develop a new culture,” said Cirino Hiteng Ofuho, the South Sudanese minister of culture, youth and sports, who traveled to England to mingle with British officials and watch the play.

“This is really an introduction of a new nation, in Shakespeare,” Hiteng Ofuho said.

Pictured: Aviragus (Malai Maluak) prays over Innogen (Margaret Kowarto) in the South Sudan Theatre Company’s well-received production of “Cymbeline.” (Ari Bloomekatz / Los Angeles Times / May 16, 2012)

Windsor castle, UK: Members of the Mexican Delfines Mariachi troupe perform at the Diamond Jubilee Pageant

Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images

(Source: Guardian)

Pictured: A council employee closes the gate that since September 2011 has allowed residents to cross between the Catholic and Protestant sides of Alexandra Park between 9am and 3pm

Antonio Olmos photographs the walls built across Northern Ireland’s capital city as a means of defusing sectarian tension. There are 99 of them, dividing nationalist Catholic neighbourhoods from loyalist Protestant ones. Some of the walls date from the early years of the Troubles, but an estimated one-third have gone up since the IRA ceasefire in 1994. Now, ‘peace gates’ are being opened in some walls in an attempt to foster greater links between communities.

(Source: Guardian)