Esperanto — Language of the International Stage

Addison Wells Smith
Aspiring Actor

One of the events of the sixth Universala Kongreso was a first-ever staging of Shakespeare in Esperanto. There was a long association of Shakespeare and Esperanto, as one of the first translations L. L. Zamenhof published was of Hamlet.[1] But instead of doing Zamenhof’s translation of Hamlet, the congress arranged for a new translation to be produced,by a Washington figure. The Hickman Players staged Ivy Kellerman-Reed’s translation of As You Like It, Kiel Plaĉas al Vi.

That play has to have received some of the best advance notices ever for a stage production, as I’ve noted before. For weeks in advance, newspapers all over the country reported that the congress would include a production of As You Like It in Esperanto (newspapers also seemed fascinated by the news that there would be church services in Esperanto as well). And with all that advance notice, of course there had to be a review or two.

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