Shakespeare, it has been said, is best enjoyed in the original Klingon.
Now, members of that furrow-foreheaded warrior race are turning their attention to Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," staging a local production almost entirely in the guttural Klingon tongue. (Yes, there will be language help for puny humans.)
The Dec. 8 production of "A Klingon Christmas Carol" is a creation of Commedia Beauregard, a local theater company that produces plays translated from one language to another. This is their first work to be translated from English into another tongue.
It's a science-fictional tongue made famous since the late 1970s on "Star Trek" movies and TV series. "Star Trek" fans have further developed the Klingon language with a dictionary, an academy, and translations of such works as "Hamlet" and "Much Ado About Nothing." Indeed, you can practically live your whole life speaking nothing but Klingon.
The adapted Dickens tale, per a press release, is that of a Klingon who has no courage nor honor, two cardinal virtues of Klingon society. The spirits that visit Scrooge try to help him regain his honor and become a worthy warrior.
A four-person team from the theater is adapting the play and doing the translation. Here's more on the play (done for just one night as a fundraiser on the University of Minnesota's St. Paul campus), including photos, a sound clip and a video clip.
St. Paul Pioneer Press theater critic Dominic Papatola will have his take on this in Sunday's paper.
Bonus "Star Trek" link: "ST" fans converge in downtown Minneapolis.
