Indirect translation on the London stage: Terminology and (in)visibility

ABSTRACT

Productions of translated plays on the London stage use a variety of terms to describe the interlingual interpretive process that has taken place between the source text and the performance. Most frequently, a translated play is described as a “version” or “adaptation”, with the term “translation” reserved for specialized productions. The translation method most commonly adopted is to commission a source-language expert to prepare a “literal” translation which is then used by an English-speaking theatre practitioner to produce a playscript for performance. This article examines the incidence of such indirect translation practices, the inconsistencies of the applied terminology, and the relevance for indirect translation in its wider sense, revealing the shadows of translational behaviour even within language pairs, and demonstrating the multiplicity of agents impacting on the ultimate appearance of a text in translation.

KEYWORDS:

• Adaptation
• literal translation
• London theatre
• theatre translation
• version
• indirect translation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Note on contributor

Geraldine Brodie is senior lecturer in translation theory and theatre translation at University College London. Her research centres on theatre translation practices in contemporary London. Recent publications include Adapting Translation for the Stage, co-edited with Emma Cole (Routledge, 2017) and her monograph The Translator on Stage (Bloomsbury, 2018) She is a panel associate of ARTIS (Advancing Research in Translation and Interpreting Studies) and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

ORCID

Geraldine Brodie http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4800-1403

Notes

1. The report was researched and written by David Brownlee, David Edgar, Wendy Haines, Clare Ollerhead and Dan Rebellato, members of the British Theatre Consortium, a research group of playwrights and academics (British Theatre Consortium, UK Theatre, and the Society of London Theatre 2015, 46).

2. The Translator on Stage investigates the translation processes from commission to reception of eight productions on the mainstream London stage in 2005. Data gathered for the study includes published playtexts, critical literature, non-published archival materials, financial statements, production reviews and interviews conducted by the author with the agents. This article draws on certain information regarding productions, agents and theatres discussed in further detail in the book, including Friedrich Schiller’s Don Carlos in a version by Mike Poulton, Federico García Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba in a version by David Hare, the Almeida Theatre, the Royal Court Theatre and the Royal National Theatre.

3. My own notes, post-show talk, Gate Theatre, Notting Hill, 5 November 2015.

4. Amounts vary between practitioners and theatres, but are likely to be in the range of £500 – £1,500 for a new literal translation.

5. I gratefully acknowledge the cooperation of Emily McLaughlin, New Work Department, National Theatre, in arranging for sight of a current template contract on 7 September 2016.