Giving the bard a common touch

Pu Cunxin will play the role of King Lear, which he says is a dream come true. Photos provided to China Daily

The National Center for the Performing Arts is putting up a Mandarin version of King Lear, and this work aims to make the playwright more relevant for contemporary audiences. Chen Nan reports.

One of William Shakespeare's tragedies, King Lear, is being translated into Mandarin for a stage production, which will open in Beijing on Jan 20. The play is a production by the National Center for the Performing Arts and is part of the Royal Shakespeare Company's 10-year cultural exchange project, entitled Shakespeare's Folio Translation Project.

In November, the Royal Shakespeare Company collaborated with the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center on a new Chinese production of Henry V, which kicked off this latest translation project.

For the King Lear production, Chinese director Li Liuyi is working on the script, which is based on Daniel S.P. Yang's translation of King Lear. Li has also read seven other Chinese translations for reference, including the versions of Zhu Shenghao (1912-44) and Bian Zhilin (1910-2000).

According to Weng Shihui, the project manager of the Shakespeare's Folio Translation Project, the latest translation is for the stage adaptation of the play, and a large part of the translation has been done during the rehearsals.

"Audiences here are familiar with Shakespeare because his plays have been translated by many scholars and have been staged many times in China," Li says.

"But many of the translations and adaptations do not portray the characters' innermost thoughts.