Shakespeare plays in 38 languages for 2012 Olympics

Each of William Shakespeare's 38 plays will be performed in a different language, including Arabic, Spanish and Urdu, during a theatre season in Britain to mark the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Shakespeare's Globe theatre in the British capital said Thursday it would host the special season over six weeks, beginning next year on April 23, the playwright's birthday.

Shows will included "The Taming of the Shrew" in Urdu, starring Pakistani television star Nadia Jamil as Katherine, and "King Lear" in Australian Aboriginal languages.

Other performances include "Julius Caesar" in Italian, "Troilus and Cressida" in Maori, "The Tempest" in Arabic and "Love's Labour's Lost" in British sign language.

"The Globe will create an international Shakespeare community in the heart of London, as a prelude to the internationalism which will fill the capital later in the year with the Olympics," said the Globe's artistic director Dominic Dromgoole.

The project is part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad which was set up in 2008 to celebrate the Olympics.

The Globe is a reconstruction of a theatre where many of Shakespeare's plays were performed before it burnt down in 1613.