This article considers the opportunities presented by -- and the obstacles preventing -- the adoption of online resources in teaching Shakespeare in South Africa. Taking into account Shakespeare's controversial place in South African education, it addresses the widely differing contexts in which Shakespeare might be encountered in the country's classrooms. The author discusses his own experience of digital platforms in teaching Shakespeare to undergraduate university students and in developing the website Shakespeare ZA (http://shakespeare.org.za/), reflecting on the mutually informing relationship between digital engagements with Shakespeare-in-performance, multilingualism, reading practice and 'literacies' more broadly construed.