Romeo and Juliet go mobile
Romeo + Khunjulwa, a mobile novel has been launched on MXit by Van Schaik Bookstore to encourage reading amongst South African youth. The m-novel, written by Mark Dornford-May, is set in present day South Africa and contextualises Romeo + Juliet, which forms part of the Matric syllabus and is endorsed by the national Ministry of Arts and Culture, directorate of books and publishing.
An m-novel is a literary work originally written on a cellular phone via text messaging and chapters usually consist of about 70-100 words each, because of character limitations on cellphones.
Melvin Kaabwe, digital manager at Van Schaik is very excited about this venture, "Everyday, as another exciting chapter in the mystery plot unfolds on their cellphones, readers can vote on and discuss the progressing plot and leave comments. This allows us to interact with the readers and see how they interpret the story in the South African context."
The author commented that he used various ways of telling the story in the different chapters. "Some is text message, some news reporting, some telephone conversations, some police statements and even on one occasion it is presented as a scene from a film script. To top it all, it is written in texting language.
"I have kept some names (for the Montague's mainly) but changed others; sometimes keeping the iambic scan eg Capulet becomes Khuzwayo, sometimes descriptive the Prince is Nkosana (Prince in Xhosa) and sometimes the sound Paris becomes Paseka. Some imagery remains the same eg black swans grows out of Benvolio's line in the original 'I will make thee think thy swan a crow'."
Dornford-May has worked in South Africa since 2000; he was founding director of the company Dimpho Di Kopane and directed all their stage productions and films. His productions toured the world and his first feature film, U-Carmen e Khayelitsha, won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. In 2007, he co-founded Isango Ensemble and from July 2009 to February 2010, he oversaw the building of the Fugard Theatre in Cape Town. He and Isango Ensemble have recently announced that they will develop their own theatre in the townships surrounding Cape Town.
The m-novel can be downloaded from MXit by following these steps: MXittradepost->entertainment->mBooks->Romeo+Khunjulwa.
