Abstract :
The article discusses an adaptation of William Shakespeareʹs Romeo and Juliet, (La Résurrection Rouge et Blanche de Romeo et Juliette- ʹThe Red and White Revival of Romeo and Julietʹ) by the Congolese writer Sony Labou Tansi. It examines the consequences of a focus on the political frame of the narrative. Sonyʹs version is an indictment of a monstrous and hyper-violent political system in which the only choice left is the manner of one’s death. Sony uses the play as a means to interrogate a society that focuses on the political fetishization of violent dictatorships and nihilistic choices. With a radical shift in focus, Sony’s work also requires the audience / reader to consider the necessity of theatre and, by extension, the power under which it operates. Sony’s language in this adaptation gives the story of Romeo and Juliet, a post-colonial framework as well as an urgent political message. The analysis concludes that the adaptation presents the conventional love story as a political tragedy of the post-colonial condition.
