Giving the bard a common touch

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.