Shakespeare to be staged in 37 languages

The Bard will go global in 2012, with the U.K.'s Globe Theatre to stage William Shakespeare's 37 works in 37 languages.

The plan which officials dubbed "the most ambitious multilingual Shakespeare project ever attempted" is to celebrate the London 2012 Olympic Games, the theatre announced on Thursday afternoon.

New and established international theatre companies will take to the Globe's London stage to perform the plays.

According to the theatre, it marks the first time all of the Bard's plays will be staged in a single season.Next yearalso marks the company's 15th birthday.

For the opening, set for the Bard's birthdate of April 23, audiences can take in The Taming of the Shrew in Urdu, a Cantonese version of Titus Andronicus or The Two Gentlemen of Verona in the Shona language.

Other languages expected to be featured over a six-week period include Greek, Maori, Spanish, Mandarin, Arabic and British Sign Language.

'International language'

"Shakespeare, as well as a great playwright, has become an international language, and has proved one of the most life-affirming and barrier-transcending ways that people can speak to one another," Globe Theatre artistic director Dominic Dromgoole said in a statement.

"His plays have been translated into every major living language and there is a long tradition of Shakespeare performances around the world in people's own vernacular."

The theatre has previously offered translated productions, including Macbeth in Zulu, a Japanese version of Comedy of Errors and a Portuguese Romeo and Juliet, performed by Brazil's Group Galpao.

After nearly three decades of planning, the Globe Theatre opened in 1997 as a recreation of the open-air theatre where many of Shakespeare's plays were first performed, with the goal of giving audiences an Elizabethan experience.

Globe officials also announced plans to build an additional indoor Jacobean theatre. Slated to seat about 320, the design will be based on that of the small 17th-century Blackfriars Theatre where the Bard's King's Men acting company performed.