The company is travelling the world to mark 400 years since the Bard's death, but in the Middle Kingdom, the plays are getting a special Mandarin makeover with a landmark translation project.
The Royal Shakespeare company has performed to sell-out crowds at Beijing’s National Centre for Performing Arts, bringing audiences the plays of Henry IV (part one and two) and Henry the 5th.
Production Associate Director Owen Horsley says Chinese audiences were able to relate to the universal themes presented on stage, particularly of family and leadership.
“Shakespeare is exploring massive themes here about power, about leadership, about English history. But also what makes them translate so well to other audiences is they also deal with really domestic things. They're about fathers and sons, love, friendship,” says Horsley.
Audiences watching the play were able to follow the complicated English lines via Chinese subtitles displayed by the stage, but soon these won’t be necessary. The performance of the three plays also mark the beginning of a landmark translation project lead by the Royal Shakespeare company.
“There is a strong desire to have new translation for modern China that would be theatrical viable, actor-friendly and audience accessible,” says project translation manager Shihui Wen.
She says this project will emphasise performance and stage effect, over a literal text translation. “If we could find the equivalent, we’ll use the equivalent. But we won’t stick to the exact words. We’ll find the image that conveys the exact stage effect, and if that is being translated then that is what we think would work.”
The translation will involve a team from the Royal Shakespeare Company, as well as Chinese interpreters, writers and actors. Wen says this workshopping and participatory approach will ensure that the end product truly reflects Shakespeare’s stories to contemporary Chinese audiences.
While early translations were adaptive to fit a political narrative, Wen says their translation process will avoid this. “In mainland China we have this language which is quite political, the language, by the party. We have these set ways of delivering things that has lost the beauty of Chinese language,” she says.
The Mandarin version of Henry V will debut at the Shanghai Centre for Dramatic Arts in October.
