An IASH Work-in-Progress seminar, delivered by Dr Elsie Albis (British Council 90th Anniversary Fellow, 2026)
An Pastidyo: A Bikolisation/Filipinisation of William Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’
What if the island of ‘The Tempest’ were a place shaped by typhoons, floods, rubbish-filled rivers, and communities learning to survive another storm and corruption that precedes and follows it? My translation project begins with this question, bringing Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’ into the language, landscape, memory, and experience of the Bikol Region, Philippines. My three-phase project explores the sociopolitical context and translation history of Bikol, develops my own theorisation on translation, and analyses Shakespeare’s afterlives in Bikol. I then develop my own dramaturgical framework for translating ‘The Tempest,’ before moving towards the translation itself, and, eventually, a staging in the Philippines in 2027.
In this talk, I will share my theorisation on translation and how I reimagine ‘The Tempest’ into Bikol through ‘An Pastidyo’ asking what happens when a classic text enters a regional Philippine language, and, in turn, what the language does to Shakespeare—and whether localising Shakespeare into Bikol be also understood as Filipinising him. Through selected translated excerpts and critical reflection, the presentation places Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’ alongside the storms of contemporary Bikol where climate change and human-made disasters have become part of everyday life.
But then again, what happens after the storm? What does it mean to repair, to rebuild, and to imagine otherwise? And who, in this version, is creating the storm? Shakespeare? Prospero(a)? The twenty-first-century Bikolana translator? Or the audience themselves? Ultimately, who or what is ‘an pastidyo’?
Meeting ID: 387 413 976 148 588
Passcode: jk7Dn2rE