The Globe celebrates the Olympic Games with a marathon of its own, all thirty-eight plays, each performed by a different theatre company, in a different language.
“Performances will include The Taming of the Shrew in Urdu, The Tempest in Arabic, Troilus and Cressida in Maori, and a production of King Lear in Aboriginal languages. Other languages likely to be showcased include Turkish, Greek, Lithuanian, and the Zimbabwean dialect Shona, as well as a performance of Love’s Labour’s Lost in sign language.” (Source: London, Reuters, 21 January 2011)
Revelling in the vast array of communities and languages that make-up London’s vibrant cultural landscape, 37 international companies will present every one of Shakespeare’s plays in a different language over six weeks:
All’s Well That Ends Well | Arpana, Mumbai | Gujarati |
Antony and Cleopatra | Oyn Atölyesi, Istanbul | Turkish |
As You Like It | Marjanishvili Theatre, Tbilisi | Georgian |
The Comedy of Errors | Roy-e-Sabs, Kabul | Dari Persian |
Coriolanus | Chiten, Kyoto | Japanese |
Cymbeline | South Sudan Theatre Company, Juba | Juba Arabic |
Hamlet | Meno Fortas, Vilnius | Lithuanian |
Henry IV Part I | Compañia Nacional de Teatro, Mexico | Mexican Spanish |
Henry IV Part II | Elkafka Espacio Teatral, Buenos Aires | Argentinian Spanish |
Henry V | Shakespeare’s Globe, London | English |
Henry VI, A New Balkan Trilogy : | ||
Henry VI Part I | National Theatre, Belgrade | Serbian |
Henry VI Part II | National Theatre of Albania, Tirana | Albanian |
Henry VI Part III | National Theatre of Bitola, Bitola | Macedonian |
Henry VIII | Rakatá, Madrid | Castilian Spanish |
Julius Caesar | I Termini Company, Rome | Italian |
King John | Gabriel Sundukayan Theatre, Yerevan | Armenian |
King Lear | Belarus Free Theatre, Minsk | Bielarussian |
Love’s Labours Lost | Deafinitely Theatre, London | British Sign Language |
Macbeth | Teatr im. Kochanowskiego, Opole | Polish |
Measure for Measure | Vakhtangov Theatre, Moscow | Russian |
The Merchant of Venice | Habima National Theatre, Tel Aviv | Hebrew |
The Merry Wives of Windsor | Bitter Pill, Nairobi | Swahili |
A Midsummer Night’s Dream | Yohangza Theatre, Seoul | Korean |
Much Ado About Nothing | Compagnie Hypermobile, Paris | French |
Othello | Q Brothers, Chicago | Hip Hop |
Pericles | National Theatre of Greece, Athens | Greek |
Richard II | Ashtar, Ramallah | Palestinean Arabic |
Richard III | National Theatre of China, Beijing | Mandarin |
Romeo and Juliet | Grupo Galpão, Belo Horizonte | Brazilian Portuguese |
The Taming of the Shrew | Theatre Wallay, Lahore | Urdu |
The Tempest | Dhaka Theatre, Dhaka | Bengali |
Timon of Athens | Bremer Shakespeare Company, Bremen | German |
Titus Andronicus | Tang Shu-wing, Hong Kong | Cantonese |
Troilus and Cressida | Ngakau Toa, Auckland | Maori |
Twelfth Night | Company Theatre, Mumbai | Hindi |
Two Gentlemen of Verona | Two Gents Productions, Zimbabwe | Shona |
Venus and Adonis | Isango Ensemble, Cape Town | South African idioms |
The Winter’s Tale | Renegade Theatre, Lagos | Yoruba |