Tuesday, February 18, 2020
Translating the Bard: What Does a Modern Shakespeare Look Like? By Loren Noveck
WIT journal: Lue Morgan Douthit, longtime director of literary development at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF), commissioned a translation of Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens into contemporary modern English in the fall of 2015, beginning OSF’s Play On! project. With the Bard still continuously the most-produced playwright in America, one purpose of the project was to ask why so many companies produce Shakespeare year after year after year. “What are we saying when we say, Here’s this writer who’s ‘universal’?” Douthit asks. “Because some of these plays are hugely problematic. Are we just saying, Well, it’s a reflection of that time and, gee, we’re not that bad now? We’re re-upping every year, and what are we re-upping?”
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There is definitely a clash of opinions when it comes to whether or not to produce Shakespeare's plays. Are they really as “timeless” as they seem. What is the “timeless” the plot, the words, or the style? There have been many adaptations of Shakespeare's stories that I think do/did have value in the time they were produced like She’s the Man, the Lion King, Kiss Me, Kate, and West Side Story. These stories did not have the style or words of Shakespeare, which also begs the question of what makes it Shakespeare considering many of his plays were based on other stories like The Brothers Menaechmus and Comedy of Errors. Here these playwrights are limited by the style and direct plot of Shakesphere. I am conflicted about why? If it is the stories that are timeless use the stories if it's the style use the style. Why take away 95% of playwrights' artistic freedom.
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