24 TheLinguistFEBRUARY/MARCH www.iol.org.ukFEATurESHow do you stage a series of 37 Shakespeare plays in37 languages? Miranda Mooretalks to Tom Bird, Globe to Globe Festival Producer, to find out The meeting in November 2010 betweenDominic Dromgoole and Tom Bird ofShakespeare's Globe, and members of theLOCOG team was momentous. Although theSouthbank theatre had met with London 2012on several occasions over the previous twoyears, it was at this meeting that they werefinally given the go-ahead to put on what mustsurely be the most ambitious multilingualtheatrical event ever staged. The race toorganise Globe to Globe -a six-week festivalof Shakespeare in 37 languages -was on.Dromgoole, the Globe's Artistic Director,and Bird, the Festival Producer, had just 16months to organise the entire programme. "It was wonderful and daunting," admits Bird."It was suddenly: 'Gosh there's a huge amountof work to do -a huge amount of hoops tojump through -to make this happen.'" Thetimeframe seems barely long enough to find37 theatre companies capable of performingthe works of Shakespeare in their nativelanguages. "It's been a very, very busy year tomake sure all the companies were in place tocome over here", he confirms.The brainchild of Dromgoole, Globe toGlobe developed through a series ofconversations with LOCOG (the LondonOrganising Committee of the Olympic andParalymic Games), which was looking to fundinternational arts collaborations for its WorldShakespeare Festival (WSF). Part of theLondon 2012 Festival, organised by theCultural Olympiad, the WSF will bringthousands of international performers to thecity, more than 600 of them to the Globe. Yet given the beleaguered state oflanguages in the UK today, Globe to Globeseems as courageous a project to fund as it ischallenging. So far the gamble is paying off.Since tickets went on sale in October theresponse has been phenomenal. "Wegenuinely didn't know quite what to expectand when we launched it to the public therewas a huge response of good will," says Bird."'Thank god you're doing this wonderfulthing', seemed to be the main reply."Particularly popular have been the Brazilianversion of Romeo and Julietfrom GrupoGalpão, the Russian Measure for Measurefrom Vakhtangov Theatre, and work inlanguages traditionally taught in the UK, suchas the French Much Ado About NothingandItalian Julius Caesar. Among the otherlanguages featured are Armenian, Bangla,Greek, IsiZulu, Korean, Macedonian, Shona,Turkish and Yoruba. The box office is expectedto bring in 45 percent of the £1.8m cost ofstaging the event, but ticket prices have beenkept low, with special discounts starting at 5%for the 'biathlon' (ie, two shows) and going upto 50% for the 'Olympian' (all shows). The festival is as much about the joy ofwatching the plays in other languages as it isabout enabling people to watch them in thelanguages they speak. "We're keen for peopleto just listen to languages and get their earsattuned to seeing the plays in differentlanguages. There's something lovely andalmost mesmerising, even if you don't speakthe language, about sitting there and listeningto the music of another language," says Bird. So that people can focus on the "rhythms"of the language, rather than a surtitles board,there will be synopsis surtitles in English butno line by line translation. "WatchingShakespeare in another language is strangelyliberating in the sense that you're notconstantly trying to decipher the meaning orthe depth of the wordplay of Shakespeare asAll the world's a stageA season of educational events entitled'Shakespeare Found in Translation' willrun alongside the more widely publicisedGlobe to Globe festival. Organised byGlobe Education, its aim is to exploreShakespeare's position as a globalplaywright. A series of lectures will beginwith Ton Hoenselaars' 'Shakespeare andthe Cultures of Translation' on 20 March. There will also be three'It is the East'practical sessions anda series ofworkshops led by translators ofShakespeare, beginning on 29 April with'Shakespeare Found In. Mandarin'.Other languages covered include Arabic,Yoruba and Polish, the latter focusing onthe Globe to Globe staging of Macbeth.See globetoglobe.shakespearesglobe.com/education.GLOBE EDUCATION © JOHNTRAMPER

Vol/51 No/1 2012FEBRUARY/MARCHTheLinguist25FEATurESlanguages they do not understand. "It wouldhave been easy just to approach aninternational theatre in each country but wewere conscious of the need for variety. So weapproached some national theatres, somebrand new theatres, some theatres that workwith very large companies, some that workwith just a couple of people doing the wholeplay, and people from different backgrounds,from circus, dance, operatic backgrounds, andeven movie stars", explains Bird. Ngakau Toa's version of Troilus and Cressidawill incorporate elements of Maori culture,including the haka; Arpana will bring music,dance and acting in the Bhangwadi theatrestyle to their Gujarati production of All's Wellthat Ends Welland Japanese company Chitenwill lend its minimalist vision to Coriolanus.Bird and his teamhave visited most of thecompanies in their home countries. "We'vetravelled around the world to watch them,"says Bird. They must be a big team then?"There's about four or five of us," he replies.Staging the spectacularFrom the initial contact and research trips rightthrough to organising the arrival of the foreigntheatre companies and staging each play, thelanguage challenges involved in putting on amultilingual festival must be huge. "Weanticipated it being very, very difficult", admitsBird, who speaks Danish -not one of thelanguages featured. "We frantically made linkswith all the cultural attachés from the differentcountries we were considering." This supporthas been helpful but, as they soon found out,in the international theatre community thereare always people who speak English.Nevertheless, Bird anticipates challengeswhen companies begin to arrive in April."They will do a couple of days' rehearsal herebefore playing and not every participant willspeak English at all." The Globe has beenconsidering a programme of bilingualinternships so that there is always someoneon-site who speaks the other language.Globe to Globe begins on 21 April with acarnival-inspired version of the poem Venusand Adonis. The Isango Ensemble promisesthat the 'heart of the original will be keptintact but the whole work will be seenthrough a South African prism', which seemsto exemplify the very ethos of the festival.Whether you simply want to sample theBard's work from another perspective or areinterested in watching the plays in yourlanguages, there are many exciting shows tochoose from. And if you can't decide, there isalways the Olympian ticket.For performance details and to book tickets,visit globetoglobe.shakespearesglobe.com. Ifyou speak Swahili, Shona, Dari or Korean andwould like to work as a Festival Ambassador,email . 'There's somethingmesmerising aboutsitting there andlistening to the musicof another language'WALKING THE BOARDSGrupo Galpão brings a circus-inspired versionof 'Romeo and Juliet' (above) to the Globe (left)the greatest English playwright," he adds."You're freed up to look at the costumes, listento the music, watch the movement, and toengage with the characters." "It allows us to experience these stories thatwe know very well through a different set ofspectacles. To engage with the way someonefrom Tokyo would do a Shakespeare play, orsomeone from Buenos Aires, is fascinating",he continues. "It's great for us to really openour eyes to the ways people are performing inother parts of the world."Scouting for talentAfter that crucial meeting, Dromgoole andBird must have asked themselves where tobegin. They looked first to the languageswidely spoken in London, including BrazilianPortuguese and Urdu, and to countries, suchas Armenia and Georgia, where Shakespeareis so frequently performed that the work hasbecome part of their own culture. They were, however, open to "good plays"from anywhere in the world. South Sudan is apoignant example: the Minister of Culture inthe newly formed government sent a 20-pageletter saying that participating in the festivalwould be a great moment in the life of theirnew nation. "The size of their desire to comehere was simply overwhelming," saidDromgoole. How could the Globe refuse?The South Sudan Theatre Group will performCymbeline in Juba Arabic. "We think it's thefirst time Shakespeare has ever beentranslated into that language", says Bird. It was important also to ensure that therewas a broad variety of genres and performers,especially given that Globe to Globe hopes toattract theatre-goers to multiple performances(you can see all 37 plays for just £100), many in© GUTOMUNIZ