This is a quick preview of the plays I’m currently working on for the Golden Age area of the site. Stay tuned for translations and contextual material.

La fuerza de la costumbre by Guillén de Castro

We have chosen this play, ‘Force of Habit’, because it is relatively unknown, as is its author, in the canon of comedias which are produced with some regularity. Brother and sister, separated at birth, grow up apart-Felix is brought up by his mother to speak softly, fear thunder and stitch, while Hipólita grows up with her father in a war zone, learning to wield a sword. This play asks the question: Is gender learned or innate?

El condenado por desconfiado by Tirso de Molina

The protagonist of ‘Damned for Despair’, Paulo is a hermit who lives in a cave in the wilderness as a devoted ascetic. In a nightmare, his soul is condemned, and he is plagued by the question: Will he go to Heaven or to Hell? The devil takes the form of an angel in order to trick him, kicking off a journey of faith and despair. This play has been performed in the UK but merits a fresh look with a view to future performances.

El castigo sin venganza by Lope de Vega

‘Punishment without Revenge’ is the tragedy of a noble family, in which a devoted son falls in love unexpectedly with his father’s new bride. A tale of incest, honour and revenge, this play is one of Lope’s better-known tragedies.

El conde Partinuplés by Ana Caro

In ‘Count Partinuplés’ the heroine Rosaura, Empress of Constantinople, is forced to choose a husband in order to provide an heir to the empire. Her cousin Aldora, a skilled magician, introduces her to occult ways of choosing a prince, and she chooses the Count Partinuplés of France, who is already engaged. This epic, magical play is unique in that it was written by a woman and its fantastical elements make the play a rarely-produced gem.

NPR interviews three translators, providing an insight into the particular challenges faced by the translator of drama and poetry. From the interview:

Bea Basso, who came from Italy to the United States in 2000 to study and work in theater, has done a lot of translating from Italian to English. She says that the choice of a single word can determine the arc of an entire work.

“There is no such thing as a literal translation, by nature of choosing one word or another, you influence the next step,” she says.

Read or hear the interview on the NPR site here: The Art of Translation

The National University of Distance Education and the Centre for Theatrical Documentation in Madrid are organising a seminar specifically on Spanish theatre written in the twenty-first century (2000-09).

For more information (in Spanish), read the Circular

Translation in the Air – Translating for the Stage: Process and Performance 6 – 7 of February 2009

This symposium will bring together experts in the field to consider the challenges faced by both practitioners and translators. The emphasis is on practical solutions to practical problems, with performability as a key theme. There will be ample opportunity for participants to raise questions and share their experiences.

The event will take place at the Strand campus of King’s College London on the afternoon of Friday 6 February and at the Tristan Bates Theatre on Saturday 7 February 2009.
Price: £25/£15 concessions. Full details will be available early in the New Year.

If you, or any of your colleagues, would like to attend or receive further information, please let us know at info@outofthewings.org

Also, if you have not yet joined the Out of the Wings general mailing list, you can do so by clicking the Contribute link on this website. Alternatively, please email us at info@outofthewings.org

Hope to see you there!

David Johnson’s pithy aphorism at the symposium, ‘nothing is so dated as the avant-garde’, was debated in relation to Play Without a Title in which Lorca transgresses the division between the audience and the stage. One delegate of the symposium insisted the theme of this ‘impossible play’ was just as relevant today as it ever was. The notion of questioning the boundaries between fiction and reality does seem to be pertinent in a climate where, as many people have commented, the story of Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross’s misdemeanors dominated our media for a week while other more urgent narratives were sidelined. Pirandello’s earlier play, Six Characters in Search of an Author, of 1921 explores many of the ideas which Lorca represents in Play Without a Title. Rupert Goold’s production currently showing at the Gielgud Theatre in London is a radical reworking of the play. It is set not in a dress-maker’s shop, but in a television studio where the production team are making a film about Dignitas. The classic Modernist theme of the relationship between fiction and reality is examined by characters in the TV production team through their attempts to define the parameters of drama and documentary:

‘ACTRESS: I thought this was a docu-drama?

EDITOR: No, no, no no. This is a drama-documentary.

Beat

ACTOR: Sorry, what’s the difference between a docu-drama and a drama-documentary?

EDITOR: A drama-doc is what we’re doing – a documentary with some dramatic reconstructions, whereas a docu-drama is a scripted film of real life events.’

At the symposium Jonathan Heron, the director of Play Without a Title, asked: what is our real contact with violence, with the violence in Iraq, for example, other than that which is safely mediated through our television screen? Perhaps this is where the nature of the translation itself comes into play. Do Six Characters in Search of an Author and Play Without a Title serve as valuable reminders that we trust the media at our peril? Rupert Goold and Ben Power’s version is framed by additional scenes, the last few of which seem to act as a kind of manifesto. The executive producer of the television company is met on stage by Rupert Goold and Ben Power, who play themselves:

‘EXEC: […] I’m sick of these slavish, academic translations. We got rid of them in film and telly years ago. It’s not like the original isn’t there to be faithfully performed afterwards […] You know, Pirandello did about six different versions, I mean, he never left the thing alone, so we need to be clear which one we’re getting authorization for.’

Goold and Power’s version serves as a call for classic works of the avant-garde to be radically updated if they are to provoke their audience as Pirandello and Lorca intended.

‘Out of the Wings’ was represented well at this weekend’s ‘Beyond Spanish: The Many Lorcas’ symposium at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry. We received a very warm welcome from the theatre’s Artistic Director, Hamish Glen. The day was well attended, with fifty delegates braving the rain to hear talks by David Johnston, Catherine Boyle, Jo Clifford, Mike Thompson, Paul Binding and Nicholas Boalsch. After a delightful sandwich lunch, we were escorted over to a theatre space next door where we were treated to a special performance of ‘Play without a Title’, translated by David Johnston and directed by Jonathan Heron of Fail Better Productions. After the production we were very privileged to be able to discuss the play and the director’s approach with the company, and the mix of theatre practice with a room full of knowledge of Lorca bred fruitful discussion. We were fed once again by the Belgrade’s fantastic catering service, after meeting the cast and dramaturg for ‘The House of Bernarda Alba’. As we had been discussing the play all day in the symposium, it was the perfect culmination to the day to see Gadi Roll’s full production up on the stage. Afterwards we chatted with the actors and translator and it seemed the symposium would extend into the night, with a real buzz around the day and a feeling of success and thought-provoking conversation.

In addition to thanking the ensembles of both ‘Play without a Title’ and ‘The House of Bernarda Alba’, we were especially impressed with the quality of the facilities, catering, and service provided by the Belgrade Theatre. We’ll certainly be back for another visit.

Janet Morris, Out of the Wings’s Project Associate, writes…

I was very fortunate to see rehearsed readings, in English translation, of three plays by contemporary Spanish authors.  The event, at the Soho Studio on 25 October, was organised by the Euro Theatro Association, in collaboration with Rose Bruford College in London, the Spanish Ministry for Culture and Caos Editorial.

The plays were written by different authors and each text had been translated by a different translator. All three performances, directed and played by theatre professionals, were very impressive and these were enriched by subsequent discussions involving the playwrights.

Congratulations to everyone involved in such a successful event.

For those who read Spanish, there is detailed coverage in Público online here.

The Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) is an international collective of scholars, educators, and practitioners founded in 1986.  The association hosts an annual conference, where upwards of 1000 people gather to present panels, conduct demonstrations, meet world-famous theatre artists, and test-drive new ideas.

For the first time in ATHE’s history, this conference will feature a Seminar addressing the dramaturgy of the Siglo de Oro:  Strategies for Reviving Plays from the Spanish Golden Age, In Class and On Stage. Through pre-conference exchanges, in-conference discussions, and post-conference networking, this Seminar offers participants (and their auditors) extraordinary opportunities to share insights, interact with international experts, and forge new developments in the field.

The deadline for submitting an abstract is Nov 1, so if you’re interested in participating, read on!

Read the rest of this entry »

A One-Day Symposium on the Work of Federico García Lorca

Saturday 1 November 2008, from 10.30 a.m., Belgrade Theatre, Coventry

• Presentations from writers, translators, academics and theatre practitioners
• Open discussion Read the rest of this entry »

For the fourth year running, the Euro Theatro Association, in collaboration
with Rose Bruford College in London, the Spanish Ministry for Culture
(INAEM and the Department for the Promotion of Books, Reading and Spanish
Arts), and Caos Editorial, proudly presents rehearsed readings in English translation
of three plays by contemporary Spanish authors.

View the full programme here:

programa-londres-2008-en3