Ranjit Bolt

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(born 1959) is a British playwright and translator. He was born in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

of Anglo-Indian parents and is the nephew of playwright and screenwriter

Robert Bolt Robert Oxton Bolt (15 August 1924 – 20 February 1995) was an English playwright and a screenwriter, known for writing the screenplays for '' Lawrence of Arabia'', '' Doctor Zhivago'', and '' A Man for All Seasons'', the latter two of which w ...

.Programme notes for ''The Grouch'',

West Yorkshire Playhouse Leeds Playhouse is a theatre in the city centre of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It opened in 1990 in the Quarry Hill area of the city as the West Yorkshire Playhouse, successor to the original Leeds Playhouse, and was rebranded in June 2018 ...

February 2008 His father is literary critic Sydney Bolt, author of several books including ''A preface to James Joyce'', and his mother has worked as a teacher of English.

Life and career

Bolt was educated at

The Perse School The Perse School is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, private school (English Private schools in the United Kingdom, fee-charging Day school, day and, in the case of the Perse, a former boarding school) in Cambridge, England. Founded i ...

and

Balliol College Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and ar ...

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

. He worked as a stockbroker for eight years but "was desperate to escape, any escape route would have done, and translating turned out to be the one". As well as his plays, he has published a novel in verse, ''Losing it'' and a verse translation for children of the fables of

La Fontaine Jean de La Fontaine (, ; ; 8 July 162113 April 1695) was a French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his ''Fables'', which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Euro ...

, ''The Hare and the Tortoise''. His version of ''

Cyrano de Bergerac Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac ( , ; 6 March 1619 – 28 July 1655) was a French novelist, playwright, epistolarian, and duelist. A bold and innovative author, his work was part of the libertine literature of the first half of the 17th ce ...

'' opened on New York at the

Roundabout Theatre The Roundabout Theatre Company is a non-profit theatre company based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, affiliated with the League of Resident Theatres. History The company was founded in 1965 by Gene Feist, Michael Fried and Elizabeth Owen ...

in September 2012, with

Douglas Hodge Douglas William Hodge (born 25 February 1960) is an English actor, director and musician. He has had an extensive career in theatre, as well as film and television where he has appeared in ''Robin Hood'' (2010), '' Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Retu ...

in the title role. His adaptation of ''

Volpone ''Volpone'' (, Italian for "sly fox") is a comedy play by English playwright Ben Jonson first produced in 1605–1606, drawing on elements of city comedy and beast fable. A merciless satire of greed and lust, it remains Jonson's most-perfo ...

'' for Sir

Trevor Nunn Sir Trevor Robert Nunn (born 14 January 1940) is an English theatre director and lyricist. He has been the artistic director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, and, currently, the Theatre Royal Haymarket. He has dir ...

, was produced by the

Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and opens around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, Stratf ...

in the summer of 2015. He was awarded the

in 2003 for services to literature.

Views

Asked about his approach to translating plays, he has said: In August 2014, Bolt was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' opposing

Scottish independence Scottish independence (; ) is the idea of Scotland regaining its independence and once again becoming a sovereign state, independent from the United Kingdom. The term Scottish independence refers to the political movement that is campaignin ...

in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.

Publications

Bolt has translated many classic plays into English, most of them into verse. Among his works are: * ''L'Invitation au Chateau'' (aka, '' Invitation to the Castle'' and ''

Ring Round the Moon ''Ring Round the Moon'' is a 1950 adaptation by the English dramatist Christopher Fry of Jean Anouilh's '' Invitation to the Castle'' (1947). Peter Brook commissioned Fry to adapt the play and the first production of ''Ring Round the Moon'' was ...

'') by

Jean Anouilh Jean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh (; ; 23 June 1910 – 3 October 1987) was a French dramatist and screenwriter whose career spanned five decades. Though his work ranged from high drama to absurdist farce, Anouilh is best known for his 1944 play ...

* ''Three Sisters'' from the play by

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; ; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his b ...

* ''The Bacchae'' by the play by

Euripides Euripides () was a Greek tragedy, tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to ...

* ''The Liar'' (1989) from ''

Le Menteur ''The Liar'' () is a play by Pierre Corneille that was first performed in 1644. It was based on ''La Verdad Sospechosa'' by the Spanish-American playwright Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, which was published in 1634. Summary Dorante, the eponymous quas ...

'' by

Pierre Corneille Pierre Corneille (; ; 6 June 1606 – 1 October 1684) was a French tragedian. He is generally considered one of the three great 17th-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine. As a young man, he earned the valuable patronage ...

* ''The Illusion'' (1990) from '' L'Illusion Comique'' by Pierre Corneille * ''The Real Don Juan'' (1990) from ''

Don Juan Tenorio ''Don Juan Tenorio: Drama religioso-fantástico en dos partes'' (Don Juan Tenorio: Religious-Fantasy Drama in Two Parts) is a Play (theatre), play written by José Zorrilla and produced in 1844. It is the most romantic of the two principal Span ...

'' by

José Zorrilla y Moral José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced very differently in each of the two languages: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , ...

* ''Tartuffe'' (1991 and 2002) from the play by

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, ; ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world liter ...

* ''Lysistrata'' (1993) from the play by

Aristophanes Aristophanes (; ; ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Ancient Greek comedy, comic playwright from Classical Athens, Athens. He wrote in total forty plays, of which eleven survive virtually complete today. The majority of his surviving play ...

* ''The Venetian Twins'' (1993) from the play by

Carlo Goldoni Carlo Osvaldo Goldoni (, also , ; 25 February 1707 – 6 February 1793) was an Italian playwright and librettist from the Republic of Venice. His works include some of Italy's most famous and best-loved plays. Audiences have admired the plays ...

* ''Le Cid'' (1994) from the play by Pierre Corneille * ''The Miser'' (1995) from ''

L'Avare ''The Miser'' (; ) is a five-act comedy in prose by the French playwright Molière. It was first performed on September 9, 1668, in the theatre of the Palais-Royal in Paris. This is a character comedy whose main character, Harpagon, is charac ...

'' by Molière * ''The Oedipus Plays'' (1996) * ''The Art of Seduction'' (1997) from '' La Double Inconstance'' by Pierre Marivaux * ''Cyrano de Bergerac'' (1995) from the play by

Edmond Rostand Edmond Eugène Alexis Rostand (, , ; 1 April 1868 – 2 December 1918) was a French poet and dramatist. He is associated with neo-romanticism and is known best for his 1897 play ''Cyrano de Bergerac''. Rostand's romantic plays contrasted with th ...

* ''The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui'' (2005) from the play by

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

* ''The Marriage of Figaro'' (2006) from the play by

Pierre Beaumarchais Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (; 24 January 1732 – 18 May 1799) was a French playwright and diplomat during the Age of Enlightenment. Best known for his three #Figaro plays, Figaro plays, at various times in his life he was also a watc ...

* ''Merry Wives - The Musical'' (2006) from ''

The Merry Wives of Windsor ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'' or ''Sir John Falstaff and the Merry Wives of Windsor'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare first published in 1602, though believed to have been written in or before 1597. The Windsor of the play's title is a ref ...

'' by

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

* ''Mirandolina'' (2006) from '' The Mistress of the Inn'' the play by Carlo Goldoni * ''The Grouch'' (2008) from ''

Le Misanthrope ''The Misanthrope, or the Cantankerous Lover'' (; ) is a 17th-century comedy of manners in verse written by Molière. It was first performed on 4 June 1666 at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal, Paris by the King's Players. The play satirizes the ...

'' by Molière * ''Waltz of the Toreadors'' from the play by

* ''Believe it or not'' from ''Le Puff'' by

Eugène Scribe Augustin Eugène Scribe (; 24 December 179120 February 1861) was a French dramatist and librettist. He is known for writing "well-made plays" ("pièces bien faites"), a mainstay of popular theatre for over 100 years, and as the librettist of man ...

* ''George Dandin'' from the play by Molière * ''Hercules'' from the work by Seneca * ''The Idiot'' from '' L'Étourdi'' by Molière * ''Scapin'' from ''

Les Fourberies de Scapin ''Scapin the Schemer'' () is a three-act comedy of intrigue by the French playwright Molière. The title character Scapin is similar to the archetypical Scapino character. The play was first staged on 24 May 1671 in the theatre of the Palais- ...

'' by Molière * ''The School for Wives'' from the play by Molière * ''The Sisterhood'' from ''

Les Femmes Savantes ''Les Femmes savantes'' (, ''The Learned Ladies'') is a comedy by Molière in five acts, written in verse. A satire on academic pretension, female education, and '' préciosité'' (French for preciosity), it was one of his most popular comedies ...

'' by Molière * ''A Flea In Her Ear'' from the play by

Georges Feydeau Georges-Léon-Jules-Marie Feydeau (; 8 December 1862 – 5 June 1921) was a French playwright of the Belle Époque era, remembered for his farces, written between 1886 and 1914. Feydeau was born in Paris to middle-class parents and raised in a ...

* "Much Ado About Nothing" by William Shakespeare, adapted and translated in a modern version by Bolt * "Three Men In A Boat" Adaptation by Ranjit Bolt, book and lyrics for a musical. (Based on Three Men In A Boat by Jerome K Jerome) * * * ''A Knight with a Big Blue Balloon''. Collection of jokes and wordplay. Published by Gibson Square. * ''A Lion Was Learning To Ski''. Limericks. Published by Gibson Square. * ''The Art Of Translation''. Published by Oberon Books, 2010.

Performances of his work

In 2014 he wrote an English version of the text for

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...

's comic opera, ''

The Impresario ' (''The Impresario''), K. 486, is a comic ''singspiel'' by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, set to a German libretto by Gottlieb Stephanie, an Austrian ''Schauspieldirektor''. Originally, it was written because of "the imperial command" of the Holy Rom ...

'', which was given by

The Santa Fe Opera Santa Fe Opera (SFO) is an American opera company, located north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. After creating the ''Opera Association of New Mexico'' in 1956, its founding director, John Crosby (conductor), John Crosby, oversaw the building of the f ...

in Santa Fe, New Mexico in a double bill paired with

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century c ...

's '' The Nightingale''.James Keller
"Songbirds at the Opera: ''The Impresario'' and ''Le rossignol''"
''The Santa Fe New Mexican'', 18 July 2014 In 2017, his Tartuffe was performed at Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario.

References

Notes

Other sources

*Michael Billington
"Comic timing"
''The Guardian'' (London) 16 October 2006

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bolt, Ranjit English dramatists and playwrights English translators People educated at The Perse School Living people 1959 births English male dramatists and playwrights Officers of the Order of the British Empire English male non-fiction writers