Adapting Translation for the Stage: Introduction

How significant is academic research for the creation of a production for the stage, and how far should theatrical elements impose on the fine detail of linguistic transposition? This introduction discusses the polemic theoretical issues around theatre translation processes which this volume seeks to interrogate, in particular the ‘literal/performable’ binary; terminological and conceptual problems concerning translation and adaptation; foreignization and domestication. The volume does not simply bring directors, translators, and academics into dialogue, but rather it allows individuals working across these three spheres to give their critical understanding of the status of translation within various dramatic movements - Naturalism, Classical Adaptations, Contemporary Drama and Modernism –reflecting the negotiations of the productions with translation for present-day performance. Collectively, the contributions to this volume demonstrate that the academic-practitioner divide is itself a theoretical construct, destabilized by the blurred agencies of practices and individuals in the adaptation of translated theatre for today’s stages