ABSTRACT
Very few people can be argued to be of the centre anymore and the empire that William Shakespeare was once a symbol of has crumbled, and is moreover in danger of dividing even further in the wake of the 'Brexit' referendum to leave the European Union. In attempting to unravel some of the issues of power, control, ownership of text, nation, colonization, language and alienation that adhere to studies of Shakespeare in adaptation and in translation, this chapter explores a number of different layers of Shakespeare's colonial legacy. It uses A Midsummer Night's Dream and even more so its sister play The Two Noble Kinsmen as a starting point to try to illuminate some of the ongoing issues in Shakespearean postcolonial adaptation, paying particular attention to the role that memory plays in the processes of adaptation and of interpretation. In April 2014, Shakespeare's Globe commenced two-year tour that would bring a production of Hamlet to 'every country in the world'.
