Monday, October 3, 2011

Reviews from Elsewhere: An Evening of Klingon Shakespeare, Washington Shakespeare Company


Thanks to @shakespearecub for a link to this March 2011 review by Eddie Pasa at therogersrevue.wordpress.com:

Rachel Wynan, Bruce Rauscher, Marc Okland (image: The Rogers Review)The Rogers Review at wordpress




Washington Shakespeare Company's 'By Any Other Name'

by Eddie Pasa

“You have never experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon.”
– Chancellor Gorkon, from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
production draft, dated 12/28/90

At first glance, it’s a relatively throwaway and rather humorous line from a Star Trek movie.
Upon second glance, some saw it as a challenge.


With a third glance, the challenge becomes a once-in-a-lifetime event… well, technically, a twice-in-a-lifetime event.


As the Klingon language has achieved a worldwide cult status, it seemed only a matter of time before someone put pen to paper and translated Shakespeare into Klingon. Maybe it was on a lark; maybe some people took it way too seriously. With the participation of the creator of the Klingon language, Marc Okrand, Washington Shakespeare Company mounted a one-night-only show titled By Any Other Name: An Evening of Shakespeare in Klingon in September 2010. Originally a fundraising event, this night featured humorous stories from both Okrand and George Takei, who played Hikaru Sulu in the original television show and resulting films.


The show was a runaway success; due to popular demand and a fortuitous coincidence involving the British Broadcasting Corporation, WSC remounted this show for another one-night-only presentation on Sunday, February 27.


Read more at the Rogers Review . . . .

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