ABSTRACT

Theatre translation is distinguished from drama translation principally by its ultimate objective to create a product destined for performance rather than for reading; a performed play-text in translation is intended to be the object of spectatorship and, increasingly, participation. The collaborative nature of theatre, and the variety of agents involved in commissioning, developing and presenting a performed translation, places the translator within a group of theatre practitioners with a wide spectrum of professional competences. The positioning of the translator within a collaborative group of practitioners raises issues of ethics, visibility, ownership, ideology, and affects social and cultural narratives around the procedural aspects of theatre translation. A consideration of performance in its wider contexts permits an engagement with broader dramatic activity, which in turn generates fresh implications for research in theatre translation. Theatre translation engages with a wide range of performance, interpretation, multiagency and multilinguistic issues.