Pictures from Play Launch at South African House 28 March 2017

Jack Klaff performing an extract from the play at the launch.

Playwright Matthew Hahn at the play launch

Members of SAYA who performed extracts from the play along with Sir Nick Stanlin, and Pumela Salela from Brand South Africa.

The High Commissioner of South Africa, HE Mr. Obed Malaba at the Launch.

Play to Launch in London: The Robben Island Shakespeare (Global South African Newsletter)

Did you know that during the Apartheid years in South Africa, a copy of "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare" was smuggled around the prison on Robben Island?

The book's significance resides in the fact that the book's owner, Sonny Venkatratham, passed it to a number of his fellow political prisoners in the single cells, including Nelson Mandela, asking them to mark their favourite passages with a signature and date. Informally known as "The Robben Island Bible", numerous prisoners selected the speeches that meant the most to them and their experience as political prisoners. 

In 2008 and 2010, playwright Matthew Hahnconducted interviews with eight former political prisoners in South Africa who were on Robben Island and signed Sonny’s ‘Bible’.

Offering a vivid and startling account of the experience of these political prisoners during Apartheid, his extraordinary verbatim play called "The Robben Island Shakespeare" weaves Shakespeare's words together with first-hand accounts from these men. They offer their reflections on their time as Liberation activists and, twenty years later, on the costs, consequences and whether or not it was all worth it.

For more information about the play and the accompanying Ethical Leadership Workshops, please visit The Robben Island Shakespeare website

Madam Western Cape Premier Helen Zille at the After School Programme Game Changer symposium hosted by Western Cape Government and The Learning Trust, featuring The Robben Island Shakespeare

The Robben Island Shakespeare at the After School Programme Game Changer symposium hosted by Western Cape Government and The Learning Trust, Cape Town

Ubuntu: sharing South Africa Friday 20 January, 18.00–21.00 Great Court and Clore Centre for Education British Museum

The Robben Island Shakespeare by South African Youth Ambassadors 

Pop-up performances across the evening, 

Clore Centre for Education

Members from the South African Youth Ambassadors perform extracts from the play The Robben Island Shakespeare, along with their own original writing which reflects on what it takes to be an ethical leader today and in the future.