Stuart Omans asked Andrew Dickson:

What are your feelings about the"modern translation" productions' initiated, I think, at Ashland Shakes?

Andrew Dickson I'm a big fan of the concept -- translations into whatever language (including English) can only help give people access to the texts, I think, and if it's commonplace to translate the plays into Afrikaans or Zulu or German or Hindi, why not contemporary English? Sure, the original lang is fascinating and rich, and one hopes that audiences would go on to explore it, but as a way of connecting with people who feel intimidated by Shakespeare or that they can't understand him, I think it's a brilliant idea. Btw, I wrote a piece the other day for the Wall Street Journal arguing (a little mischievously) that Shakespeare is better in translation ... http://www.wsj.com/articles/szekspir-...

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