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| Photo by E.C Darling-Bond |
By M.V. Moorehead - Phoenix Magazine
Klingons invade the Valley this month!
Or re-invade, that is – Ronin Theatre Company’s production of A Klingon Hamlet played in May at Irish Cultural Center in Phoenix, and then for a weekend at the Beaver Street Theatre in Flagstaff, under the auspices of the Flagstaff Shakespeare Festival. The show, featuring the warlike aliens from Star Trek, will play for a single, abridged performance at Phoenix Fan Fusion (the first act will be summarized with a sonnet!) at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 7, before the full-length saga settles into a two-weekend run at Stage Left in Glendale from June 20 through June 29.
Star Trek has always had a weakness for Shakespeare. Several of the original series episodes have titles drawn from The Bard, one episode involved a Shakespearean troupe traveling on the Enterprise, and a throwaway joke in 1991’s Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country implied that Klingons claimed the poet as their own and regarded the English versions as puny knockoffs. This has led to published versions of at least two of the plays, Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing, in the Klingon language invented by linguist Marc Okrand for the movies.
You will be relieved to hear that the current Arizona production is performed in English, although the play-within-the-play is performed in Klingon, with projected titles.
“Ninety percent of what is spoken is Shakespeare,” says director Keath Hall, who also plays the title role, and who co-adapted the play with E.C. Darling-Bond. Certain elements, of course, required some Klingon re-adjustment, notably Ophelia’s mad scene.
“Klingon women are allowed to be a bit more aggressive,” Darling-Bond observes.
“It’s a bare bones Hamlet, but it’s all there,” says Wes Martin, who plays Claudius. “Every single scene, just cut down.”
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