Quick Facts
Biography
Ranjit Bolt OBE (born 1959) is a British playwright and translator. He was born in Manchester of Anglo-Indian parents and is the nephew of playwright and screenwriter Robert Bolt. 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 and the University of Oxford, and worked as a stockbroker for eight years but "I 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, The Hare and the Tortoise. His new version of Cyrano de Bergerac opened on New York at the Roundabout Theatre in September 2012, with Douglas Hodge in the title role. He is currently working on an adaptation of Volpone for Sir Trevor Nunn, to be produced by the RSC this summer. He was awarded the OBE 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 opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.
Publications
Ranjit Bolt has translated many classic plays into English, most of them into verse. Among his works are:
- L'Invitation au Chateau (aka Ring Around The Moon) by Jean Anouilh
- "Three Sisters" by Anton Chekhov
- "The Bacchae" by Euripides
- The Liar (1989) from Le Menteur by Pierre Corneille
- The Illusion (1990) from L'Illusion Comique by Pierre Corneille
- The Real Don Juan (1990) from Don Juan Tenorio by José Zorrilla y Moral
- Tartuffe (1991 and 2002) from the play by Molière
- Lysistrata (1993) from the play by Aristophanes
- The Venetian Twins (1993) from the play by Carlo Goldoni
- Le Cid (1994) from the play by Pierre Corneille
- The Miser (1995) from L'Avare 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
- The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (2005) from the play by Bertolt Brecht
- The Marriage of Figaro (2006) from the play by Pierre Beaumarchais
- Merry Wives - The Musical (2006) from The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare
- Mirandolina (2006) from the play by Carlo Goldoni
- The Grouch (2008) from Le Misanthrope by Molière
- Waltz of the Toreadors from the play by Jean Anouilh
- Believe it or not from Le Puff by Eugène Scribe
- 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 by Molière
- The School for Wives from the play by Molière
- The Sisterhood from Les Femmes Savantes by Molière
- A Flea In Her Ear by Georges Feydeau
- Bolt, Ranjit (2001). Losing it: an adult fairytale for those who're tired of fairytales in prose. John Murray. ISBN 071956025X.
- Bolt, Ranjit (2006). The hare and the Tortoise and other fables of La Fontaine. Giselle Potter (illustrator). Barefoot Books. ISBN 1905236530.
Performances of his work
In 2014 he wrote an English version of the text for Mozart's comic opera, The Impresario, which was given by The Santa Fe Opera in Santa Fe, New Mexico in a double bill paired with Igor Stravinsky's The Nightingale.