From Globe stages to Bridgerton: Adjoa Andoh’s Shakespeare journey
For many Malaysians, Adjoa Andoh is best known as the sharp-tongued Lady Danbury in Netflix’s Bridgerton. Yet long before the regency-era hit, Andoh built her reputation on some of the most demanding Shakespearean roles in Britain, as both actor and director. Her work ranges from Richard II at Shakespeare’s Globe to Richard III in Liverpool and Kingston, often challenging who is seen as belonging in these classic stories. That experience now underpins her director’s residency at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, one of the world’s leading centres for Shakespeare studies. During her week there, Andoh consulted rare texts, visited local schools, held public talks and screened her all-women-of-colour Richard II. For Malaysian viewers who mainly encounter the Bard through school texts and Bridgerton’s lavish, colour-conscious casting, Andoh’s career makes visible a key connection: Shakespeare is not just exam material, but fertile ground for reimagining who gets to stand at the centre of the story.
Why the Folger Shakespeare Library matters in a tense political climate
The Folger Shakespeare Library, a marble-fronted institution on Capitol Hill, is often described as a kind of Shakespearean shrine. Housing the world’s largest collection of Shakespeare First Folios, it sits in the heart of America’s political capital, a symbolic reminder that culture and power are closely intertwined. Andoh has spoken movingly about touring the Folger vaults and feeling the weight of history and energy in its location. Her residency there culminated in a staged reading marking 90 years since the Federal Theatre Project’s landmark all-Black Macbeth, directed by a young Orson Welles during the Great Depression. Revisiting that production at a moment when debates over race, identity and censorship are especially heated in the US is significant. It signals that Shakespearean institutions are not neutral museums but active participants in national conversations about who is represented on stage and who gets public funding and visibility.
“Not the only one in the room”: DEI and classical theatre
In an Adjoa Andoh interview at the Folger, she recalled the emotional impact of making Richard II with an all-women-of-colour cast and creative team. “We all cried because it was like, I don’t have to be the only one in the room,” she said, describing how artists of colour often carry extra psychological burdens when they are the lone representative in a predominantly white space. Her aim was simple but radical: create a rehearsal room where everyone could “just go and be” excellent at their craft without also managing stereotypes or tokenism. For Andoh, this is what diversity, equity and inclusion in Shakespeare should mean: not limiting stories to one identity, but widening the imagination of those who hire, cast and commission. Her approach also shows that inclusive Shakespeare casting is not about lowering standards, but about recognising that there has never been a shortage of talent—only a shortage of opportunity and vision.
Race, gender and casting: From Richard III to Bridgerton
Andoh’s own work illustrates how diversity in Shakespeare can reframe old texts. In her Richard III, she kept Shakespeare’s language but shifted the “difference” that attracts prejudice from disability to race, making her Black Richard the only visibly marked figure in the court. At the same time, she cast deaf and physically disabled actors in other roles simply because they were strong performers, not as symbols. This sits alongside wider global debates, from calls for disabled actors to play Richard III to arguments over whether LGBTQ+ roles should go only to LGBTQ+ performers. For Malaysians, the most visible example is the Bridgerton Shakespeare connection: a Regency world filled with Black and brown aristocrats, including Andoh’s Lady Danbury, that borrows directly from Shakespearean romance and mistaken-identity plots. These productions show how colour-conscious and inclusive Shakespeare casting can open up emotional access to stories once thought to belong only to a narrow slice of society.
What this could mean for Shakespeare in Malaysian classrooms and theatres
In Malaysia, Shakespeare often appears as a school obligation: dense language, distant settings and cultural references that feel foreign. Yet Andoh’s work offers a different model. Her talks at the Folger seamlessly linked the Gospel of Luke, the transatlantic slave trade, punk rock and even the Artemis II moon mission, showing that Shakespeare can converse with religion, history, music and science. Malaysian educators could similarly invite students to stage scenes in local languages, set plays in familiar communities or discuss how themes like power, jealousy and migration echo regional politics and family life. Theatre-makers might experiment with multi-ethnic casts, gender-swapped roles or contemporary Malaysian settings for plays like Romeo and Juliet or The Tempest. The goal is not to “modernise” for its own sake, but to treat Shakespeare as a living toolkit. Following Andoh’s example, Malaysian audiences could see the Bard not as “Western literature” but as shared human drama, open to everyone.