‘And while I am falling, I listen’: on translation processes in I turned away and she was gone (2014) Jennie Reznek* in conversation with Sruti Bala

Abstract

Jennie Reznek is Co- Artistic Director and Trustee of Magnet Theatre in Cape Town, South Africa. I turned away and she was gone is the fifth solo work that she has developed under the banner of Magnet Theatre. It was nominated for six awards and published by Modjaji Books in 2019. The interview took place in the framework of the research project on translation and performance (in collaboration with the University of Cape Town and the University of Amsterdam, 2016–19) in July 2017 at Adishakti Laboratory for Theatre Arts & Research in Pondicherry, India. Reznek shared her reflections on the artistic processes of translation in the solo performance I turned away and she was gone.

Keywords:

• myth
• solo performance
• Magnet Theatre
• Demeter and Persephone
• Jennie Reznek

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 I turned away and she was gone premiered in 2014 at Magnet Theatre in Cape Town. Written and performed by Jennie Reznek; directed by Mark Fleishman; choreographed by Ina Wichterich; original music by Neo Muyanga; set design by Craig Leo; lighting design by Mark Fleishman; credits for images: Jesse Kate Kramer and Mark Wessels.

2 In the poem ‘The Myth of Innocence’ Glück writes:

She stands by the pool saying, from time to time, I was abducted, but it sounds wrong to her, nothing like what she felt.Then she says, I was not abducted. Then she says, I offered myself, I wanted to escape my body. Even, sometimes, I willed this. (Glück 2006, p. 51)

3 Wichterich was one of the choreographers on Mark Fleishman’s productions of Rain in Dead Man’s Footprints and Cargo (collaborations with Jazzart Dance Theatre) and she also helped with some choreography in Every Year Every Day, I Am Walking.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Research Foundation: [Grant number 99082].