The plays of William Shakespeare are taught in schools and performed on stages in every corner of the world; they have been produced, adapted and remixed in every conceivable language, form and medium.

But as the world prepares to mark 400 years from the anniversary of the great playwright’s death, local academics and theatre practitioners fear that when it comes to Shakespeare, something is rotten in the State of Malta.

“I notice that while in many countries the general level of understanding and appreciation of Shakespeare seems to be improving, in Malta this is not always so,” Daniel Massa, a professor of English who has lectured on Shakespeare in Malta and abroad for more than three decades, said.

Currently, children’s first encounter with Shakespeare tends to be in secondary school English classes. Internationally, however, experts continue to stress the need for the plays to be seen – as they were intended – and not read.

“Reading and explication of text is definitely not enough,” Prof. Massa said. “There exist excellent videos and recordings of Shakespeare plays which ought to be used more in Maltese classrooms. I also don’t see many students at productions by local theatre companies. Are teachers encouraging their students to attend?”

This year’s anniversary celebrations will see a diverse programme of events across the world, from plays and films to educational outreach programmes. British Prime Minister David Cameron has called it an opportunity to celebrate the “unparalleled” influence that Shakespeare had on modern day culture, language and art.

The statue of Shakespeare in Verona, Italy.

For many of those unacquainted with his works beyond the classroom, however, any beauty and influence contained in Shakespeare’s works feels hidden behind the ‘difficult’ nature of the plays themselves.

Although the vast majority of the words Shakespeare used – and often coined – are still in use today, the phrasing and syntax can often seem impenetrable. Nor is it possible to ignore the fact that the plays were written in a time and society wildly different to our own.

Speak to actors or audience members, on the other hand, and what often emerges is a picture of a dramatist whose plays speak to our times with urgency and relevance.

“Human nature doesn’t change,” veteran actress and director Polly March said. “We have always had love, war, cruelty, racism. Nothing changes. Shakespeare is there as a paradigm from which to learn about those issues.”

While in many countries the general level of understanding and appreciation of Shakespeare seems to be improving, in Malta this is not always so

So what is being lost in translation? Part of the issue, Ms March suggests, is that even when people are exposed to high-quality local performances of Shakespeare’s works, the style of production reinforces negative preconceptions, rather than challenging them.

Across the world, Shakespeare plays have been set everywhere from 1920s New York to the Gulf War, and staged in pubs, abandoned hotels and empty swimming pools. In Malta, however, what few productions take place tend, with a few notable exceptions, to be far more traditional in tone.

“We treat it too sacredly,” said Ms March, who directed an all-female Two Gentlemen of Verona in 2009.

“It isn’t a holy writ; you can do whatever you want with it. But if a producer needs to survive, he’s governed by economics.

“The people who can afford to come are often older, professional people who want to see Shakespeare performed a certain way, and not the people we actually need to be bringing, who are children and young people.”

If there is cause for optimism, it might be the increased focus on the subject brought about by the events of the 400-year celebration. Alongside other events, actors from the Globe Theatre in London will perform Hamlet at the Salesians Theatre in Sliema next month as part of a tour to every single country on earth, while the MADC will stage A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the traditional outdoor summer performance. Meanwhile, building on its series of live broadcasts of stage performances of plays from leading theatres in London, Spazju Kreattiv (St James Cavalier) in Valletta will be holding a Shakespeare film festival, starting this month.

The broadcasts, the organisers said, have already provided audiences a more contemporary take on Shakespeare, in line with the direction international productions are moving today. The hope is that similar ideas could filter through to the local scene and help deepen the public’s understanding and appreciation of the Bard.

“We’ve had some particularly good feedback from schools, many of which had an outdated mindset about how Shakespeare is staged,” Daniel Azzopardi, a programme manager at Spazju Kreattiv, said.

“Seeing it in a different light has highlighted how relevant the themes Shakespeare tackled are the big issues we encounter today.”