Klingon
Christmas Carol Afterwards
by Qob zantai-Hurric
First a
forward! 18 months ago the theater company Commedia Beauregard – a
troupe that specializes in translated works - were kicking around the
idea of doing something new and thought, “Hey how about doing something
in Klingon? How about Dicken's Christmas Carol?” After the “you can't
be kiddings” died down, they found my email address and asked me who
could translate it for them. When they had no luck with getting any of
the usual suspects to help, we talked some more and decided that Qe'pa
sutai-qul (the captain of the RakeHell, and a greatly skilled linguist)
and I would sit down with Chris Kidder and Sasha Walloch(the artistic
directors of the company) and hammer out a translation from the text
Chris and Sasha prepared. 6 weeks of hard work later we had a script
and put on the first production. It went well and was a lot of fun.
Since
then, both Chris and Sasha saw how much fun we were having in the
RakeHell and joined us in the madness, Chris as Q'DroS tai-Kiln (yes he
has a great self-made uniform) and Sasha as Doqtuj (red-hot), and she
is!
This year's production was bigger and better than the first
year's: a cast of 22 as opposed to the 13 of last year, with Qob,
Qe'pa, Mordok, Krom and Q'DroS of the RakeHell performing. As
with last year, we did this in full Klingon makeup and the wonderfully
evocative costuming we borrowed from the premier dinner theater of the
area's production of Camelot, so we looked medieval in rough wools and
furs. Though we did the play entirely in tlhIngan Hol (except for the
narrator who addressed the audience in Federation Standard) we
projected a simultaneous translation onto a screen at the side of the
stage. Last year's production we were happy to get the words spoken
properly and the acting was basically up to the skills of the
individual actors. This year we were determined and succeeded in
getting the dialog spoken with understanding, directing individual
emphasis. Our goal was to have the performance so understandable that
you would barely need the translation. We doubled the size of our cast,
necessitating some long nights of sculpting and casting Klingon
foreheads by me. Not all of the 21 Klingon ridges were made
this
year, but all (except ironically the set I was wearing) were made by
me, from 17 different molds.
Weapons were supplied by the RakeHell
and from the shop of Q'DroS who made a half dozen batleths and
mekleths. K'tishma of the RakeHell wrangled the props so that the cup,
weapon or random bag we needed was always there. At the wrap party
Qe'pa and I proclaimed that all of the cast who weren't RakeHell
members, now were, to their great rejoicing. Q'DroS and Doqtuj were
promoted to Lieutenant vestai in appreciation of their hard work that
brought glory to the KAG and the RakeHell.
Now the performance itself!
Well
that was a success. A rousing one. The old saw about a cruddy dress
rehearsal and a great performance came through. There were blown lines,
missed cues and a lot of roughness in the dress, before about 20 people.
We
came back with a vengeance and blew the walls out before a packed
house, receiving a standing ovation. Q'DroS introduced the show, giving
huge props to the IKV RakeHell and the Klingon Assault Group, warmed up
the crowd and got them in the mood for the show, not a big task as the
packed theater was ready for Klingon merriment, I suspect there were a
lot of RakeHell fans as his mention of the RakeHell got a big
cheer. From the entrance of Sheila Regan as the
Vulcan
narrator, who nailed the part, to Michael Ooms' fabulous performance as
the honorless cowardly SQuja', the play started with a bang.
Q'DroS was QachIt, the poor
struggling employee of SQuja' and the father of the doomed tImHom, and
was superb.
Mordok
was the ghost of MarlI', SQuja's dead partner. He worked for weeks to
get the tlhIngan Hol down, but he didn't let his struggles with the
language get in the way of a fine turn, beating the stuffings out of
Squja' as he tried to get the miserly coward to change his ways.
Qob
spit and blustered his way through through the part of SQuja's old boss
VeSIwIQ who tried in vain to get the young Klingon more
interested in the way of the warrior than simply in making money. Qe'pa
as marja' the wife of SQuja's nephew VreD was as great a warrior as her
husband and a force of nature. Krom took several small parts and did a
great job, making many helpful suggestions in rehearsals that added to
the performance.
The happy invention we came up with when we
reworked the play into a Klingon work was to see the ghosts as the
spirits of Kahless past present and future. Kahless past was
played as an original series Klingon, with smooth forehead and
fu-manchu mustache. Kahless present was a tall hulking contemporary
Klingon with a goblet of steaming Klingon courage. Kahless future was a
silent black shrouded figure. The play was full of Klingon culture and
references, one that was somewhat lost in the beginning was the phrase
the MarlI' was as dead as a Doq wep. We never translated Doq wep and
the Vulcan remarked that she wasn't sure what was so dead about a Doq
wep (red shirt). We presented the play as the Klingon original version,
and it definitely felt like it. This looks like it will be a recurring
yearly performance, and we have hopes of doing more with it than simply
showing it here in Minnesota.
