The politicisation of Shakespeare is nothing new. When Laurence Olivier adapted Henry V in 1944, he was keen to emphasise a sense of national pride while the country was still at war. The moment when Henry orders the execution of French soldiers at Agincourt was therefore omitted. For this paragon of Englishness to behave so ruthlessly would have derailed the jingoism of the endeavour.

Shakespeare is now being appropriated for a new kind of war, a cultural and ideological revolution orchestrated by the “woke”, those little authoritarians who believe that all artistic endeavours are mere conduits for the “approved” message. The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, the charity in charge of various properties connected with the great playwright, has announced that it is “decolonising” its collection to “create a more inclusive museum experience”. Apparently, some of its artefacts and archive materials may include “language or depictions that are racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise harmful”.

One can almost hear the collective yawn from a nation that is growing weary of this kind of faux-radicalism. It already feels outdated, much like Jaguar’s recent advertising campaign showcasing “genderfluid” models instead of cars. For the woke, Shakespeare is the epitome of white male privilege and so his enduring popularity is inherently “problematic” — that ubiquitous buzzword which has much the same effect as a harpy’s talons scraping along a blackboard. But to read Shakespeare through the restrictive lens of today’s monomania for group identity is to denude his work of its vitality and abundance. It would be like visiting the Sistine Chapel and only looking at the floor.

While there is nothing wrong with examining the ways in which Shakespeare may have been appropriated throughout history by racists or colonisers to justify their worldviews, the act of “decolonisation” by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust is hardly an improvement. Those who once sought to elevate Shakespeare as a moral exemplar for Englishness have much in common with the progressive activists of today. Both groups seek to curtail and contort his art to promote their own particular ideology. Colonisers and decolonisers are equally ill-equipped to appreciate his genius.

That is not to suggest that our greatest playwright cannot be interpreted in all sorts of ways. The original production of The Tempest before the court of King James in the early 17th century doubtless bore little similarity to Derek Jarman’s film adaptation of 1979, which features Toyah Wilcox, Christopher Biggins, and a closing rendition of “Stormy Weather” by the jazz singer Elisabeth Welch. But it is tedious in the extreme when all theatre practitioners shoehorn the same intersectional orthodoxy into productions of Shakespeare. It’s about as subversive as the sycophantic court poet who writes a panegyric for the king.

The decolonising project by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust has come about following consultation with an activist academic. If its executives are serious about their role as custodians of the writer’s legacy, they should also consult an expert who understands that Shakespeare is not enlivened by forcing him into the iron maiden of identity politics. We know nothing of Shakespeare’s opinions on politics, religion, race, or anything else, which is precisely why his work can be cited or adapted to support any cause.

Whereas the woke movement seems to be in its dying days, there are many in the arts, academia, and the cultural sector who are seemingly oblivious. They are like the Japanese holdouts of the Second World War, still fighting a battle which has already been lost. They are free to indulge in their regressive ideological obsessions as much as they wish, but the likes of Shakespeare’s Birthplace Trust should not be attempting to foist them onto the rest of us. While these conformists continue to pose as radicals, the rest of the world is getting very bored of their antics. Someone really ought to let them know.

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Andrew Doyle is a comedian and creator of the Twitter persona Titania McGrath

andrewdoyle_com

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