Monday, September 24, 2007

Multicultural madness

Katy and I are regular patrons of the Richmond Theatre. We will not be going for a while in protest at what we saw last Saturday night, a production of Midsummer Night's Dream using seven languages from the Indian subcontinent.

This is not the way one wishes to see the Bard. Whoever he may have been, one thing is certain. he wrote in English. He is not easy to understand but putting bits of a play into seven other languages adds nothing to the communication. It spoils the play and I am disgusted that my tax had been squandered by the British Council on such a travesty of the play. I am also astounded a the sexually explicit nature of the production coming from cultures where public kissing is not usually portrayed. Visually it was well done but I go to Shakespeare to hear the unequalled words. Denied them we left at the interval. Having wasted money we chose not to waste more time also.

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