Primarily established to increase the inclusiveness of the theatrical works of William Shakespeare, can the Mawa Theatre Company manage to shed a new light on the works of the great bard?
By: Ringo Bones
The Mawa Theatre Company was said to be the Shakespeare Company with a difference as the UK’s first to be comprised of Black and Black mixed race women – a sizable number of which are displaced citizens from the African continent’s conflict zones. Founded by actors Maisey Bowden, Gabrielle Brooks, Danielle Kassaraté and Jade Samuels, the newfangled Shakespearean company aims to examine how women of the African Diaspora are represented in classical literature and reframe them for contemporary audiences that find “conventional classical literature” alienating by drawing out themes that still resonate with universality. According to Maisey Bowden, the newfangled Shakespearean theater company’s namesake Mawa means tomorrow in Chichewa, which is a Malawian dialect and an apt label of the company’s forward, future looking perspective.
Primarily, the newfangled company’s long-term goal is to change the current live theater industry from within by creating more space for marginalized voices in the field that, at present, is currently dominated by privileged men of white European descent that is currently devoid of inclusiveness and diversity. When the company started back in June 2021, their first project was a video series entitled: “What’s Past is Prologue”.
Can the Mawa Theatre Company successfully cast a new light and perspective of the theatrical works of Shakespeare and at the same time attract a new generation of fans? Well, Shakespeare’s works has told stories of life that managed to remain timeless and relevant for over four centuries. There’s a story of the heart and a story that exposes the soul that all of which await a skillful acting company to entertain and inspire a new generation of audiences regardless of race, religion, creed, gender and of age.
