Adapting Macbeth in a Lusophone context: the challenges of intercultural performance

Abstract

This article analyses the intercultural performance of The Prayers of Mansata, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth to the West African context of Guinea-Bissau. After a critical exploration of contemporary intercultural theory, it charts the relationship between the Shakespearean text and this adaptation, before exploring particular questions raised by the circulation of the performance within different Portuguese-speaking contexts. It argues that such performances can represent a potent social and political intervention in contemporary configurations of power within a Portuguese-speaking community of nations by combining concerns with local specificity and wider concerns with a post-colonial present.