OOTW2016 muestra/mostra of play readings
Out of the Wings at King’s College London is thrilled to present ‘OOTW2016’, our first muestra/mostra of play readings from some of Spain and Latin America’s finest writers, all presented in brand-new English translations.
Five writers from Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Uruguay and Peru take us on a journey from London to Lima (via Madrid, São Paulo, Montevideo and Buenos Aires), crossing the borders of geography, language and genre in a showcase of Ibero-American writing in all its breadth.
In The Blindman and the Madman, Brazil’s Cláudia Barral explores taboo subjects such as old-age romance, depression, disability and the fine line between what is real and what we want to see, as weakling Nestor waits at home with his haranguing older brother for a visit from their neighbour upstairs. Will she ever arrive?
From Argentina, Griselda Gambaro’s As the Dream Dictates follows one woman in her dreams and desires, although the characters she invents rebel against her simple and wishful designs. She longs to be free, to be loved and cared for unconditionally, yet her dream is governed by rules of its own.
Dictatorship looms heavily in the memory of The Sickness of Stone, by Blanca Doménech. Here, one of Spain’s largest and most controversial national monuments – Franco’s Valley of the Fallen – is the setting for a disturbing contemplation of shared trauma, history, and the impossibility of practicing what we preach.
Uruguay’s Raquel Diana takes real-life events in London’s Wood Green as the inspiration for Dancing Alone Every Night. Dark and funny by turns, a woman sits in the limbo of her living room, wondering if the connections she so desperately yearns for will ever come her way, or if the Christmas presents she has bought will ever be wrapped – or opened.
And in Peru under curfew, an unsuspecting neighbour stumbles in on an eccentric family in Mariana de Althaus’s Noise. A few glasses of wine later, and she is soon joining in their hijinks, as more family members arrive and the small flat overflows with welcoming sandwiches. After all, once the curfew time is upon them, she might as well settle in for the night…
Translators Almiro Andrade, Gwendolen MacKeith, William Gregory, Sophie Stevens and Mary Ann Vargas bring these works to English for the first time. They will be joined by directors Sue Dunderdale, Camila França and Camila González.
On Friday, July 8, in ‘Worldmaking on Stage’, Out of the Wings dedicates a whole day to workshops, seminars and discussions on the practice of theatre in translation. This in an opportunity to participate in a workshop on directing the translated play, and will be led by Catherine Boyle and Sue Dunderdale, with a team of theatre practitioners, translators and scholars.
Out of the Wings – Spanish and Spanish American Theatre in Translation: A Virtual Environment for Research and Practice – began in 2008 as a three-year collaboration between King’s College London, Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Oxford. The project aimed to make the riches of the theatres of Spain and Spanish America accessible to English-speaking researchers and theatre professionals. Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the project’s many outcomes included an unrivalled database of theatre texts from Spain and Latin America, a series of seminars, lectures, publications, involvement in many theatre readings and productions, and an ongoing legacy of work and research into the field.
Today, Out of the Wings at King’s is a collective of theatre-makers, researchers, translators and academics with a shared love of theatre and the possibilities of cross-border collaboration and exchange that are released when works for the stage are translated for new audiences. Our most recent work at King’s College London now also encompasses the Portuguese-speaking world.
OOTW2016 is the first of many events that we will be presenting in the coming months and years. We are always on the lookout for new members or collaborators, so please connect with us:
· On Twitter at @OutoftheWings
· By e-mail info@outofthewings.org
Or by staying to say ‘hola’ to us after the readings.
For more information visit https://ootwweb.wordpress.com
