Image from The Wall Street Journal‘s ‘A Facelift for Shakespeare’
A Facelift for Shakespeare
By John McWhorter for The Wall Street Journal, 25 September 2015
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival will announce next week that it has commissioned translations of all 39 of the Bard’s plays into modern English, with the idea of having them ready to perform in three years. Yes, translations—because Shakespeare’s English is so far removed from the English of 2015 that it often interferes with our own comprehension.
Most educated people are uncomfortable admitting that Shakespeare’s language often feels more medicinal than enlightening. We have been told since childhood that Shakespeare’s words are “elevated” and that our job is to reach up to them, or that his language is “poetic,” or that it takes British actors to get his meaning across.
But none of these rationalizations holds up. Much of Shakespeare goes over our heads because, even though we recognize the words, their meaning often has changed significantly over the past four centuries.
Fie Upon it, They’re “Translating” Shakespeare!
By Lev Raphael for Huffingtonpost.com, 27 September 2015, updated 30 September 2015
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Oregon Shakespeare Company is doing translations of all of Shakespeare’s plays to make them more comprehensible. Why? According to a Columbia University professor, because:
Most educated people are uncomfortable admitting that Shakespeare’s language often feels more medicinal than enlightening. We have been told since childhood that Shakespeare’s words are “elevated” and that our job is to reach up to them, or that his language is “poetic,” or that it takes British actors to get his meaning across.
Medicinal? I’m not sure where these educated people grew up or went to school, but I never heard any of this in New York. A son of immigrants who earned advanced degrees, I was taught from childhood that Shakespeare was my inheritance as an English speaker and an inexhaustible treasure for me as a writer. I was taught that Shakespeare was a great playwright, the greatest in English, and that his plays had to be seen. The spectacle counted: lighting, sets, costumes, music.
Jeanette Winterson on writing a cover version of Shakespeare
On the day of the first new moon of June 1599, at 3 o’clock, the new Globe theatre opened its doors with a new show – Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare.
Everything was new – it was the spirit of the times. London had quadrupled its population in 80 years; this mass migration itself was new. Young men, in particular, staked themselves for adventure, money and chance.
London, an old city, inhabited for more than 1,500 years, was suddenly a youthful city again. Half of its population was under 20. And life expectancy – rich or poor, whether in Shoreditch or Mayfair, barely got beyond 45.
So there was intensity of life in the city. A teeming energy made out the twin forces of youthful recklessness and brevity of life. In such a context, the theatre is a kind of alchemy that turns less into more. Here, time is not subject to the usual constraints. Here, time, and other worlds, are yours for the taking.
36 Playwrights Named to “Translate” Shakespeare Plays into Modern English; See Who’s Doing Midsummer Night’s Dream
By Andrew Gans for Playbill, 30 September 2015
Among the goals of the project, according to a press statement, is to “increase understanding and connection to Shakespeare’s plays, as well as engage and inspire theatergoers, theater professionals, students, teachers and scholars.”
“We began this project with a ‘What if?,’ said Lue Morgan Douthit, OSF’s director of literary development and dramaturgy, in a statement. “There are differences between the early modern English of Shakespeare and contemporary English. What if we looked at these plays at the language level through the lens of dramatists? What would we learn about how they work? Would that help us understand them in a different way? ‘Translate’ is an inadequate word because it implies a word-for-word substitution, which isn’t what we’re doing. I’m going for something much more subtle. But I like the rigor that ‘translate’ implies. What excites me the most about this is who will dig into these texts. We have paired 36 playwrights with dramaturgs, and we are asking them to go in and look at what the plays are made of. The writers get the great joy of tagging along with the world’s best poetic dramatist. It will be the geekiest exercise ever.”
The final link includes a full list of playwrights and dramaturges.
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