ABSTRACT
We begin this investigation of women’s intercultural performance with the simplest form of cultural exchange in theatre: the adaptation and translation of dramatic texts. As Rey Chow explains in a different context, translations are never perfectly ‘faithful’ to their ‘original’ texts (Chow 1995: 176) and adaptations are even less so. It is for this reason that adaptations are ideal intercultural texts because they mix (at least) two cultures, two time periods, and in some cases, two divergent theatrical worlds. New dramatic narratives emerge from story-lines, plots, and characters as they travel through time and across cultural borders; these transformations and mutations are the subject of this chapter.
