Adapting Translation for the Stage

English-speaking theatre has a tendency to characterise translation as ‘adaptation’, masking the linguistic transposition taking place. Even so, the theatrical practice of publicising the name of the ‘adaptor’ alongside the original author brings the process of translating for the theatre into focus, raising theoretical issues of translatorial agency, intervention and terminology but also practical questions of performability and audience reception. It is estimated that around half of one million tickets are sold for translated productions in central London theatres each year; however, the genre of ‘plays in translation’ is rarely approached as a critical mass, either by theatre practitioners or in academia.

Staging and Adapting Translation brings together academic researchers in university language departments with theatre practitioners engaged in producing staged translations in order to explore a series of theatrical genres on an interdisciplinary and interprofessional basis. This collaborative project, emanating from the University College London Theatre Translation Forum 2013-14 developed in partnership with the Gate Theatre Notting Hill, brings to light the common themes and difficulties encountered when writing, staging, and researching translation, particularly within the contemporary British theatre industry. The collection rectifies the scholarly and industry oversight of this rich and complex field, demonstrating exactly what happens within translation for the theatre, and how scholars and practitioners alike can productively unpick the creative process.