Contemporary Performance Translation

Jean Graham-Jones proposes a radical, comprehensive new theory of translation for the stage, moving beyond the linguistic or cultural.

Rethinking translation for the contemporary international stage, Jean Graham-Jones argues for a radical new approach incorporating dramaturgical logic and staging, actor training and performance styles, gesture and embodiment, and aesthetics and reception, drawing upon her own extensive experience as translator, actor, director, and scholar.Radically rethinking translation for the contemporary international stage, Jean Graham-Jones interrogates standard linguistic and cultural categories and proposes an overhaul of the translation process itself, incorporating dramaturgical logic and staging, actor training and performance styles, gesture and embodiment, and performance aesthetics and reception. She demonstrates how a theory of translationality – in which translations do not erase the original but rather stand in relation to it and to other texts and performances – encapsulates the collaborative process between contemporary translators and theatre artists. Presenting multiple experiential cases and drawing on Graham-Jones's own career as a translator, actor, director and scholar working in Argentina, the US, and the UK, this richly interdisciplinary work extends a traditional understanding of contemporary performance translation and its potential in theatrical practice.