It's Shakespeare -- in Klingon

ARLINGTON, Va., Aug. 29 (UPI) -- In the United States, where many people can't speak English properly, a Washington acting troupe says it will perform Shakespeare in Klingon.

During its annual benefit Sept. 25, the Washington Shakespeare Company in Arlington, Va., will perform selections from "Hamlet" and "Much Ado About Nothing" in both English and the language invented for Klingon characters of the Star Trek films, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

The effort was inspired by a line spoken by English actor David Warner in "Star Trek VI," in which his Klingon character declares, "You have not experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon."

The company will speak the verse in both English and Klingon with the lines in iambic pentameter. A group in Pennsylvania calling itself the Klingon Language Institute is responsible for the translations, the Post said.

"It kind of fits into our company identity, of trying to breathe some fresh air into the classics, of doing something really, really different with them," the company's artistic director, Christopher Henley, said. "It seems a way to say that we're not as reverent as other companies in town."