Introduction

There are contributors who work as professors in university language, classics, and theatre departments whilst simultaneously authoring critically acclaimed translations for the stage. The role of the classics within theatre translation debates is an area where the academy and the industry especially need to be brought into dialogue. Translation and adaptation terminologies continue to present both theoretical and practical challenges. Lawrence Venuti’s concept of foreignizing and domesticating translations is perhaps the most influential intervention in translation theory over the past three decades. People use language to discuss language and translations to theorize translation, modernism employs theatre to dissect theatre, querying the forms and structures operating in naturalist theatre to recreate realism for the stage. Translated text and performance engage in mutual interrogation, in rehearsal and over time, to meld the many adaptive and collaborative layers of development into a holistic creation.