The Mercurian
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The Mercurian : : A Theatrical Translation Review Volume 5, Number 2 (Fall 2014) Editor: Adam Versényi Editorial Assistant: Sarah Booker ISSN: 2160-3316 The Mercurian is named for Mercury who, if he had known it, was/is the patron god of theatrical translators, those intrepid souls possessed of eloquence, feats of skill, messengers not between the gods but between cultures, traders in images, nimble and dexterous linguistic thieves. Like the metal mercury, theatrical translators are capable of absorbing other metals, forming amalgams. As in ancient chemistry, the mercurian is one of the five elementary “principles” of which all material substances are compounded, otherwise known as “spirit”. The theatrical translator is sprightly, lively, potentially volatile, sometimes inconstant, witty, an ideal guide or conductor on the road. The Mercurian publishes translations of plays and performance pieces from any language into English. The Mercurian also welcomes theoretical pieces about theatrical translation, rants, manifestos, and position papers pertaining to translation for the theatre, as well as production histories of theatrical translations. Submissions should be sent to: Adam Versényi at [email protected] or by snail mail: Adam Versényi, Department of Dramatic Art, CB# 3230, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3230. For translations of plays or performance pieces, unless the material is in the public domain, please send proof of permission to translate from the playwright or original creator of the piece. Since one of the primary objects of The Mercurian is to move translated pieces into production, no translations of plays or performance pieces will be published unless the translator can certify that he/she has had an opportunity to hear the translation performed in either a reading or another production-oriented venue. All material published in The Mercurian is protected by international copyright law. Inquiries related to production or reproduction should be directed to the translator of the piece in question. The Mercurian, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Fall 2014) 1 The Mercurian Volume 5, Number 2 (Fall 2014) Table of Contents Editor’s Note 3 Villain in a Turbulent Time 5 Script adapted by SONG Jie, SUN Tuo Translated by CHE Xiao Citizen Schippel 48 by Carl Sternheim Adapted by David Copelin and John Van Burek From a literal translation by Lascelle Wingate Photograph on the Beach 126 by Emilio Carballido Translated by Jacqueline E. Bixler Empty Bottles 176 by Oscar Sanz Cabrera Translated by Matthew Ward Talc: A Powder Room Drama 226 by Abel González Melo Translated by Yael Prizant Soiree for the Fifth of June 263 by Sa`dallāh Wannūs Translated by Roger Allen Review: New Plays from Spain: Eight Works by Seven Playwrights 352 Book edited by Frank Hentschker Reviewed by Iride Lamartina-Lens The Mercurian, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Fall 2014) 2 Editor’s Note This issue of The Mercurian is bookended by theatrical translations from two languages and two countries we have not published before: Che Xiao’s translation of Villain in a Turbulent Time from China, and Roger Allen’s translation of Soiree for the Fifth of July from Syria. Villain in a Turbulent Time had its genesis in the 2nd Global Alliance of Theater Schools International Festival in Beijing in 2011. Schools from around the world were invited to perform productions of Shakespeare’s Richard III. Students and faculty at the Shanghai Theater Academy adapted Richard III into Peking opera, finding parallels between England’s War of the Roses and the power struggles that existed in China’s historical era of Five Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms. Shakespearean soliloquies are divided into two characters, one who speaks, the other who dances and does acrobatics. Villain in a Turbulent Time is an example of one approach to cross-cultural translation that adapts the work in the source text to the artistic conventions of the target culture in order to better convey the theatricality of the source text. The Mercurian hopes to publish more translations of contemporary Chinese theatre in the future. The issue continues with David Copelin and John Van Burek’s translation of German Carl Sternheim’s comedy, Citizen Schippel. Here Copelin and Van Burek worked with a literal translation from the German by Lascelle Wingate, a French translation (a language in which both Copelin an Van Burek are fluent) of Sternheim’s text, and a British English translation of the play to create a North American English translation. The use of literal translations by those not fluent in the source language is a contested issue in the field. Readers can judge for themselves whether or not Citizen Schippel is, as I believe, a theatrically successful translation. Citizen Schippel is followed by Jacqueline Bixler’s translation of Photograph on the Beach by the great Mexican playwright Emilio Carballido who died in 2008. In her introduction Bixler describes how the final photographic image of both her and Carballido’s favorite play amidst the nearly one hundred he wrote over the course of his career, resonated powerfully with her students at Virginia Tech reading it in the context of the week of April 16, 2007, when thirty-two students and faculty members were killed. Following that mass shooting photographs of the victim proliferated showing their smiling faces frozen in time. This response to Photograph on the Beach illustrates the power of theatrical translation. A play from a different culture and time can speak to the Virginia Tech community and, perhaps, to the too many other communities that have suffered mass shootings since 2007. Photograph on the Beach is followed by Matthew Ward’s translation of contemporary Spanish playwright Oscar Sanz Cabrera’s Empty Bottles. Winner of the 2012 Premio Kuxta Ciudad de San Sebastián, Empty Bottles is a tragi-comic investigation of what Sanz Cabrera describes as the “purgatory” of lower class life where we find “the most dreadful dramas and the cruelest, and by definition, the funniest comedies.” Spain, one of the countries in the Euro Zone hardest hit by the 2008 financial crisis, still suffers from 25% unemployment. Sanz Cabrera’s characters emerge from that context. Yael Prizant’s translation of Abel González Melo’s Talc depicts the underworld of contemporary Havana, Cuba. Since the “Special Period” of the early 1990s when Russian support for the island abruptly ended, Cuba has had to reinvent itself economically. González Melo’s play, part of a trilogy The Mercurian, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Fall 2014) 3 entitled Winterscapes, shows us the underbelly of that economy in a manner reminiscent of Ancient Greek tragedy yet infused with contemporary Cuban sensibility. The last translation in this issue is Roger Allen’s translation of one of the most significant figures in modern Arabic drama, Sa`dallah Wannus’ play Soiree for the Fifth of July. Soiree deals with the aftermath in Syria of the Arab-Israeli War of 1967. Wannus, a playwright and theoretician heavily influenced by Ionesco, Anouilh, Brecht and Piscator during his studies in Paris, advocated what he called “politicization theater” as a response to the events of 1967. In Soiree he uses a play-within-a-play structure, with actors representing both spectators and the Syrian security forces interspersed throughout the audience frequently responding to the events on stage. In this way Wannus theatricalizes what Allen describes as the initial reaction to the 1967 war in the Arab world, “combined despair and fury, then the aftermath also provoked a widespread and profound consideration, or indeed reconsideration, of the very bases of post-independence Arab society and of Arab values in general.” Given the situation in Syria today and, indeed, throughout the Arab- speaking world in 2014 following the events of the so-called “Arab Spring” in 2011, The Mercurian is privileged to publish Allen’s translation of Wannus’ Soiree for the Fifth of July. Finally, we conclude the issue with Iride Lamartine-Lens’ book review of New Plays From Spain: Eight Works by Seven Playwrights that presents translations of post-Francoist playwrights from contemporary Spain. Along with Oscar Sanz Cabrera’s Empty Bottles in this issue, this collection of translations forcefully demonstrates that there is excellent work being produced today in Spain, despite a worldwide lack of attention to it. Such work deserves recognition beyond Spain’s borders while we still celebrate the brilliance of sixteenth-century playwrights such as Calderón de la Barca, Tirso de Molina, and Lope de Vega; or the nineteenth century José Zorrilla, or the early twentieth century Frederico García Lorca. Back issues of The Mercurian can be found at: http://drama.unc.edu/related-links/the-mercurian/. As the theatre is nothing without its audience, The Mercurian welcomes your comments, questions, complaints, and critiques. Deadline for submissions for consideration for Volume 5, No. 3 (Spring 2015) will be February 1, 2015. --Adam Versényi Advisory Board Neil Blackadder, Knox College Catherine Coray, hotINK at the LARK/New York University Richard Davis, George Mason University/Theater of the First Amendment Jean Graham-Jones, The Graduate Center, The City University of New York David Johnston, Queen’s University, Belfast, N. Ireland Kirsten Nigro, The University of Texas-El Paso Caridad Svich, Playwright/Translator Paul Walsh, Yale School of Drama The Mercurian, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Fall 2014) 4 VILLAIN IN A TURBULENT TIME By SONG Jie, SUN Tuo Translated by CHE Xiao Villain in a Turbulent Time was first created in 2011 for the 2nd Global Alliance of Theater Schools International Theater Festival held in Beijing, which designated one Shakespearean play, Richard III for that year, to be performed by several outstanding theater schools in the world. The Chinese Opera Directing Class of Shanghai Theater Academy adapted Richard III into Peking opera and performed it as their graduation piece in 2012.