A production of Shakespeare’s The Two Noble Kinsmen is opening this weekend in Salt Lake, and if you’re intimidated by the Bard’s language, here’s the good news: it’s in modern English. Oregon Shakespeare Festival hired 36 playwrights to rework Shakespeare, among them the University of Utah’s Tim Slover. But here’s the question: after 400 years, should we be messing with William Shakespeare? Doug talks to scholars Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, James Shapiro, and to Slover about “translating” a classic.
Guests:
- Daniel Pollack-Pelzner is a professor of English at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon. He also writes about Shakespeare for The New Yorker magazine, where his article Why We (Mostly) Stopped Messing With Shakespeare's Language appeared in the October 6, 2015 issue.
- James Shapiro is the author of 6 books about William Shakespeare, including Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare [Independent bookstores|Amazon|Audible] and The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606 [Independent bookstores|Amazon|Audible]. Read his case against Shakespeare in modern English in The New York Times.
- Tim Slover is a playwright and author, head of the playwriting program at the University of Utah.
The Two Noble Kinsmen
As part of Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Play On! project, Slover and 35 other playwrights translated 39 of Shakespeare's plays. Tim Slover took on The Two Noble Kinsmen, which is being staged by the U's Department of Theatre April 7 - 15 at the Babcock Theatre. For tickets and more information, click here
Listen to actor Kali Scott read the Jailer's Daughter soliloquy of The Two Noble Kinsmen, as translated by playwright Tim Slover.
Other Books Mentioned
- Tim Slover recommends Charles and Mary Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare [Independent bookstores|Amazon] to introduce your kids to the bard.
