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 Balliol College, Oxford. He worked as a stockbroker for eight years but "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 version of Cyrano de Bergerac opened on New York at the Roundabout Theatre in September 2012, with Douglas Hodge in the title role. His adaptation of Volpone for Sir Trevor Nunn, was produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company in the summer of 2015. 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, Invitation to the Castle and Ring Round the Moon) by Jean Anouilh Three Sisters from the play by Anton Chekhov The Bacchae by the play 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