37 plays in 37 languages

Tomorrow night, on Shakespeare's 448th birthday, I will see the first of 37 plays produced at The Globe in a variety of languages.  The Globe to Globe series kicks off with Troilus and Cressida in Maori.

I had an idea to see all 37 plays, since you get a discount for buying tickets to all of them.  But then it occurred to me that maybe that 's a little ambitious.  After all, the series is only 6 weeks, so you'd see a play every other day more or less and only two are in English.  Some I think I could figure out, such as Julius Cesar in Italian, but Henry VI pt 1 in Serbian is sure to be a challenge.

The Globe season opened today with Sonnet Sunday, in which all 154 sonnets were read in different languages.  I thought it would be a good testing ground for my tolerance and as it happens it was perfect, not only to see how I do with hours of foreign language but also hours of standing in the cold rain.  I have Groundling tickets since I enjoy being close to the stage and seeing the actors close up.  But the forecast tomorrow is for rain, as it was today.  But having a dress rehearsal of sorts, I now know how many layers it will take to be comfortable.

One of the biggest questions I had in considering Shakespeare in other languages, is if the translations are focused on rhyme and meter, or more about exact words translations.  As far as I could tell today, the sonnets were more about keeping somewhat of a meter going and leaving a rhyme intact.  I can't really say that they were all still technically sonnets, having the "abab" scheme, and some lasted far longer than what it would normally take to read the 14 lines.  One sonneteer explained to us that the iambic pentameter was just not going to work for his language, Cree, as one single word had as many syllables as an entire line.  The sonnets he read were quite long but beautiful and in keeping sound of Native American languages.

Some languages were a bit spikier than others, German being the most.  It was quite staccato sounding while Twi and Kuwati Arabic were more flowing.  Catalan had the best rhymes.  Scots and Cornish sounded the most like the original.  Finnish sounded more Spanish than I expected.  Latin was really cool.  There was meant to be Klingon, but he was a no show.

Of course, the reception of the sonnet also depended upon the speaker.  Some were performers, other less so.  Some clearly communicated the meaning of the speech while others stuck to more reading of the page.  There were great moments of humor, such as when the Latin speaker asked us to identify this famous speech: "Equus!  Equus! Equus meus regnum!"

At the very end, after almost 5 hours of sonneting, all performers came on stage at once and spoke the final sonnet simultaneously, creating one big cacophony.  What was most amazing was the collections of cultures and languages and the excitement people would feel when they heard their native language.  But sonnets are different than the plays.  They are essentially soliloquies and far more about word play than the interaction of dialogue.  So when 116 rolled around, "Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments..." I didn't recognize it in its Amharic version.  It had mostly slipped by before I was able notice.  And that made me wonder how much indeed will I be able to recognize or enjoy in the sense of wrapping myself in the delicious sound of Shakespeare when it is presented by a set of sounds so unfamiliar.

Still a tremendous event and one I will treasure for the rest of my days.

Those people in the next room.

Edinburgh happens to be one of my favorite cities in the world, which is why I chose to go there for Christmas.  In the UK, not much is open on Christmas, so I wanted to be somewhere we could walk around and just enjoy the beauty.  And Edinburgh did not disappoint!  And yet the trip was not without its quirks.

Christmas day was wonderful, and very windy.  We met our friends who had just flown in from California that morning.  We walked up to Calton Hill and all around the High Street, eating a delicious Christmas dinner in the evening.  Later that night, James and I were awoken by a couple in the next room.  It seems they were arguing.  The female was whining and we could hear a male voice, who sounded to be grumbling a half-hearted response.  Around this time, I thought I heard her say in a thick brogue, "But, I Looooves Ya!"  This, to me, confirmed that they were locals who were having a spat.  I tried to ignore it, hoping they would figure something out. 

Around 2:30am, we were awoken again  This time, the female was just sobbing.  It sounded like someone had killed her best friend.  I was thinking that they were probably really drunk and the argument was, at this point, just pointless and protracted.  We'd had enough, so we called down to the front desk.  The nice young man who answered asked me to verify which room it was coming from, as they couldn't take my word for it.  Well, that seemed a bit odd, but I got dressed and went out to what I thought was the next room.  But as this hotel is an amalgamation of several Victorian buildings, it wasn't that easy.  The next room seemed dead quiet.  So, I proceeded to walk around the floor, through a storage area and over to a hallway that would have come up behind our room.  As I opened the fire door, I heard it.  But it wasn't the same as what I had heard in the room.  Here, it was quite clear, as if I was in the room with them.  This was not a Scottish couple having a drunk spat.  Oh, no!  This was one female and two males, all speaking Japanese.  The female was role playing as a very naughty school girl who was being spanked and scolded.  I really thought I could tell the difference between a Scottish dialect and Japanese.


Just then, the hotel clerk came around the corner.  He acknowledged the noise and we walked back towards the elevators.  He apologized for making me walk the floor to find the source and explained his colleague who requested such is new.  I told him it was all worth it just to hear the real story.

After returning to our room, we heard the phone ring on the other side of the wall.  The people stopped, then whispered a lot but never answered as the phone kept ringing and ringing.  But shortly after, the sound ceased all together.

It was only two nights later that we were awoken again at 1:30am, but this time by the fire alarm.  We both got dressed, even though the recently reported problems with the electrical system told me that it was most likely a false alarm, but we all know how deadly hotel fires can be.  So, we walked down the stairs and out to the front of the hotel where scores of people were standing in the cold drizzle as the fire brigade pulled up.  A pair of young women huddled together for warmth, having not taken the time to grab their coats. By contrast, I had my purse, camera and everything to stay warm and James had everything he owned from the room.  Within 15 minutes, we were given the all clear and everyone returned to their rooms.  About an hour later, the alarm went off again for a short burst.  Then there was a very long burst, while James and I put pillows over our heads and tried to pretend it wasn't there.  Just as I was putting on jeans to go outside because I couldn't stand it anymore, it stopped.  Once again, we were left in our hotel bed completely awake at 3:30 in the morning.  Fortunately, there was wine left over from the night with the noisy neighbors.

The next morning, we sleepily roamed around the city and made our way back to London that night.  And so I must admit I was happy to be back in my London flat where the most noise at night is the radiator.