Maori haka opens Bard festival

AFP/London

Members of the Two Gents Productions theatre company perform Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona at the Shakespeare Globe London, in London yesterday. The play was presented in a Shona specially commissioned translation, entitled Vakomana Vaviri Ve Zimbabwe, at the Globe to Globe Festival which opened as part of the World Shakespeare Festival

A rousing haka war cry by Maori actors yesterday kicked off a marathon programme of 37 Shakespeare plays in 37 languages as a cultural curtainraiser for the 2012 London Olympics. The Ngakau Toa theatre company, who launched the festival yesterday evening with their performance of Troilus and Cressida, shook London’s Globe Theatre with the rhythmic stamping and cries made famous by New Zealand’s rugby team. The actors’ tattooed thighs were an unusual sight at the Globe, a replica of the 16th century playhouse on the south bank of the River Thames that presented many of Shakespeare’s plays during his own lifetime. Other highlights of the Globe to Globe festival will include a South Sudanese version of Cymbeline, a performance of The Comedy of Errors by Afghan actors, and Richard III by the National Theatre of China. Deaf actors will also present Love’s Labours Lost in British sign language. The festival runs until June 9 as part of cultural celebrations leading up to the Olympics, which open on July 27. “It’s probably one of the most ambitious festivals of all time,” festival director Tom Bird said, adding that a key aim was to attract London’s many linguistic communities to the theatre.“The other thing is to show that Shakespeare isn’t really an English poet,” he said. “He’s become a part of world culture.” Bird added that the playwright - whose 448th birthday was yesterday - retains a universal appeal because “he gets what it means to be human better than anyone else”. “He takes you to the darkest times and then to the lightest times in two minutes,” he said.Rawiri Paratene, director of Troilus and Cressida, said he was “excited and frightened” about opening the festival in Maori.