Star Trek

Want another reason why DC is delightful? How about an evening of Shakespeare…in Klingon? That’s right, Klingon. Trek over to the Washington Shakespeare Company in Arlington next month to hear it for yourself. Via WaPo:

At the company’s annual benefit Sept. 25 in Rosslyn, selections from “Hamlet” and “Much Ado About Nothing” will be performed in the language that was invented for the Klingon characters of the “Star Trek” films. Actors will be speaking the verse in two languages, English and Klingon, and the lines in each will correspond to the Bard’s signature meter: iambic pentameter. The translations are courtesy of the Klingon Language Institute, a Pennsylvania group that published “The Klingon Hamlet” several years ago, in addition to composing the Klingon version of “Much Ado About Nothing.”

Of course, when considering this curious approach to Shakespeare — eccentric even by the idiosyncratic standards of contemporary niche theater — the question inevitably arises: Why? As it turns out, the troupe has an answer so logical it might satisfy Mr. Spock. The chairman of Washington Shakespeare’s board just happens to be the man who invented Klingonspeak for the films: Marc Okrand, a longtime linguist at the Vienna-based National Captioning Institute.

If that isn’t Trek-tastic enough for you, George Takei (Mr. Sulu) is going to be there, too. Live long and Prosper, Bard-fans.