How do you translate Shakespeare into Mohawk? Ask Stratford Festival artist Wahsontí:io Kirby

So, how do you translate Shakespeare’s plays into Mohawk?

Theatre artist Wahsontí:io Kirby might know a little about that.

A graduate of the National Theatre School in Montreal, they’ve spent this season at the Stratford Festival answering this very question. Kirby, an artist belonging to the Mohawk Nation of Kahnawà:ke, stars as Evelyne in Stratford’s “1939,” set in a fictional residential school in northern Ontario. In the play, students at the school put together a production of Shakespeare’s “All’s Well That Ends Well” in anticipation of a visit from King George VI — and the parallels that emerge between the students and the characters they must play let them make Shakespeare’s notorious “problem play” their own.

Kirby has been involved with “1939,” written by Jani Lauzon and Kaitlyn Riordan, for several rounds of workshops — they joined the team in 2020, and then gained acceptance to the Stratford Festival’s prestigious Birmingham Conservatory in 2021.

“It’s been a dream to be part of the Stratford company, especially the company in ‘1939,’” they said in an interview.

“‘1939’ is so detailed, and so full of life for every single character. When I first saw the early drafts in 2020, I was just completely smitten,” Kirby said.

“At a workshop this past December, we were all sitting at a table, and the team encouraged (us) to improvise parts of the scene. And it was huge for me to have that kind of input, that kind of consideration … the team was interested in our opinions and our feelings about things. That just made it feel so full and considerate and kind and lovely. It fostered such an environment of respect and consideration.”

Kirby is credited both with playing Evelyne Rice and with acting as the Kanien’kéha translator on the production. Something important to Kirby while working on “1939” was that the translations felt authentic to the characters and wove together their acting acumen with the minutiae of the translation.

“Ultimately, it’s all to serve,” said Kirby, who attended a Mohawk immersion school from Grades 4 to 12. “The spirit of the play, to serve the survivors, to serve those who didn’t make it home.”

“So when I came into the show’s creation process, I was essentially doing translations on the spot,” continued Kirby. “And they were kind of rough, because they were on-the-spot translations, but they served as a placeholder for what the show might sound like if we decided to keep moving in that direction.”

“We had many Zoom calls where we’d dissect the text, see if there were any replacement words that would fit better in Mohawk than in English. I mean, translating Shakespeare into plain English is hard enough,” they said with a laugh.

“But then we got into the rehearsal room, and we got to work on certain monologues. I’m not necessarily a professional translator, so some of them might be spotty here and there. But I translated them from what I felt was Evelyne’s perspective which I assume is similar to mine.”

“It was a huge privilege to be given that opportunity,” Kirby concluded.

Elder Elizabeth Stevens of the Chippewas of Kettle and Stony Point First Nation acted as a script consultant on the project.

“I worked with Kaitlyn and Jani to provide support and share the circle teachings to provide a safe, secure setting for communication and the development of the materials for ‘1939,’ ” Stevens said in an interview.

“My involvement was not only in the review of the script and the initial draft and the edits or subsequent drafts. It was also the workshops so people could gather and discuss what it is they needed in terms of support,” continued Stevens.

The role of language in “1939” is hugely important, Stevens believes.

“It’s reflective of the need for individual artists to be able to express their … mother tongue, what we’ve grown up speaking since early childhood. In this case, the artists were able to use that in the production itself. I understand the residential school process on which the play was based, where loss of language occurred as a result of students not being permitted to speak their language. I believe it’s so powerful to hear the language which was lost.”

Stevens pointed out the plurality of languages on the Stratford stage in “1939” — English, French, Ojibwe, Cree, Haudenosaunee and Mohawk — and especially noted how those languages reflect culture and world view in the play.

“It helps to dispel the misinformation, or myth, that Indigenous people all speak the first language, or that Indigenous people are not unique in their respective First Nations identity,” said Stevens.

“It’s a sacred gift, language. I felt that to express our history, and to learn better — our ability to see that expressed in the play was so important.”

“1939” runs until Oct. 29 at the Stratford Festival. Tickets at stratfordfestival.ca.