Article published In:
Translation in the TheatreEdited by Cristina Marinetti
[Target 25:3] 2013
► pp. 321–342
Edited by Cristina Marinetti
[Target 25:3] 2013
► pp. 321–342
Translating Greek plays for the theatre today
Transmission, transgression, transformation
This essay discusses the relationship between form, language, rewriting and performance in the contemporary staging of ancient Greek drama, with special attention to the range of working practices of the translators, rewriters and theatre practitioners that are involved in the performance creation process. The discussion is framed by questions about the reciprocal influences of research in translation studies and in classics and about how both can best engage with the insights offered by performance praxis.
Keywords: Greek language, performative turn, tragedy, transformation, transmission, translation
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Greek theatre poetry on the modern stage: Transmission and transgression
- 3.Communicating choreuein to modern audiences
- 4.Transformative translation: The agency of the audience
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
-
References
References
Badiou, Alain
2005 Handbook of Inaesthetics. Translated by Alberto Toscano. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Bassnett, Susan
1991 “Translating for the Theatre: The Caseagainst Performability.” TTR 4 (1): 99–111. 
1998 “Still Trapped in the Labyrinth: Further Reflections on Translation and Theatre.” In Constructing Cultures: Essays on Literary Translation, ed. by Susan Bassnett, and Andre Lefevere, 90–108. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
2011 “Prologue.” In Tradition, Translation, Trauma: The Classics and the Modern, ed. by Jan Parker, and Timothy Mathews, 1–9. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bierl, Anton
2005 “The Chorus of Aeschylus Agamemnon in Modern Stage Productions: Towards the ‘Performative Turn’.” In Agamemnon in Performance 458 BC to AD 2004, ed. by Fiona Macintosh, Pantelis Michelkis, Edith Hall, and Oliver Taplin, 291–306. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Blau, Herbert
2006 “Who’s There? Community of the Question.” PAJ 831: 1–12.
Bradley, Frank
2003 Email interview with the author.
2004 Personal emails to the author.
Carne-Ross, Donald S
2010 Classics and Translation, ed. by Kenneth Haynes. Cranbury, NJ: Rosemont.
Dickson, Andrew
2012 “A Life in Theatre: Interview with Barrie Rutter.” Saturday Guardian Review 10 March.
Espasa, Eva
2000 “Performability in Translation: Speakability? Playability? Or just Saleability?” In Moving Target: Theatre Translation and Cultural Relocation, ed. by Carole-Anne Upton, 49–62. Manchester: St. Jerome.
Fischer-Lichte, Erika
2008 The Transformative Power of Performance: A New Aesthetic. Translated by Iris Jain Saskya. London: Routledge.
2010 “Performance as Event – Reception as Transformation.” In Theorising Performance: Greek Drama, Cultural History and Critical Practice, ed. by Edith Hall, and Stephanie Harrop, 29–42. London: Duckworth.
Fisher, Nicholas R.G
1992 Hybris: A Study in the Values of Honour and Shame in Ancient Greece. Warminster: Aris and Phillips.
Gamel, Mary-Kay
2010 “Revising ‘Authenticity’ in Staging Ancient Mediterranean Drama.” In Theorising Performance: Greek Drama, Cultural History and Critical Practice, ed. by Edith Hall, and Stephanie Harrop, 153–170. London: Duckworth.
Goldhill, Simon
1990 “Greek Drama and Civic Ideology.” In Nothing to do with Dionysos? Greek Drama in its Social Context, ed. by John Winkler, and Froma Zeitlin, 97–129. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Grethlein, Jonas
2010 The Greeks and Their Past: Poetry, Oratory and History in the Fifth Century BCE. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Graham-Jones, Jean
(ed.) 2007 Theatre Journal. Special Issue on Theatre Translation. 591: 3.
Hall, Edith, and Stephanie Harrop
(eds) 2010 Theorising Performance: Greek Drama, Cultural History and Critical Practice. London: Duckworth.
Hall, Edith, and Fiona Macintosh
2005 Greek Tragedy and the British Theatre 1660–191. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hardwick, Lorna
2001 “Who Owns the Plays? Issues in the Translation and Performance of Greek Drama on the Modern Stage”. Eirene 371. (Theatralia Special Edition): 23–39.
2005 “Staging Agamemnon: The Languages of Translation.” In Agamemnonin Performance 458 BC to AD 2004, ed. by Fiona Macintosh, Pantelis Michelkis, Edith Hall, and Oliver Taplin, 207–221. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2006 “Remodelling Receptions: Greek Drama as Diaspora In Performance.” In Classics and the Uses of Reception, ed. by Charles Martindale, and Richard Thomas, 204–215. Oxford: Blackwell.
2007 “Shades of Multi-lingualism and Multi-vocalism In Modern Performances of Greek Tragedy in Post-colonial Contexts.” In Classics in Post-colonial Worlds, ed. by Lorna Hardwick, and Carol Gillespie, 305–328. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2008 “Translated Classics around the Millenium: Vibrant Hybrids or Shattered Icons?” In Translation and the Classic: Identity as Change in the History of Culture, ed. by Alexandra Lianeri, and Vanda Zajko, 341–366. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2010 “Negotiating Translation for the Stage.” In Theorising Performance: Greek Drama, Cultural History and Critical Practice, ed. by Edith Hall, and Stephanie Harrop, 181–191. London: Duckworth.
2013 “The Problem of the Spectators: Ancient and Modern.” In Greek Drama in Performance, ed. by Anastasia Bakogianni. London: BICS.
2014 “Oceans Part.” In Greek Drama in the Americas, ed. by Kathryn Bosher, Fiona Macintosh, Justine McConnell, and Patrice Rankine. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Humphreys, Craig S
2004 The Strangeness of Gods: Historical Perspectives on the Interpretationof Athenian Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Jebb, Richard
(ed.) 1887 The Oedipus Tyrannous of Sophocles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Johnston, David
2004 “Securing the Performabilityof the Play in Translation.” In Drama Translation and Theatre Practice, ed. by Sabine Coelsch-Foisner, and Holger Klein. Berlin and New York: Peter Lang.
Macintosh, Fiona
2009 Sophocles: Oedipus Tyrannos. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Martindale, Charles
1993 Redeeming the Text. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
McAuslan, Ian, and Judith Affleck
2003 Sophocles: Oedipus Tyrannos. A new translation and commentary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
McGuinness, Frank
1997 Sophocles’ Elektra. London: Faber and Faber.
2004 Euripides’ Hecuba in a new version. London: Faber and Faber.
Mee, Charles L
2007 “I Like to Take a Greek Play.” Theatre Journal 59 (3): 361–363.
Montgomery Griffiths, Jane
2010 “Acting Perspectives: The Phenomenology of Performance as a Route to Reception.” In Theorising Performance: Greek Drama, Cultural History and Critical Practice, ed. by Edith Hall, and Stephanie Harrop, 219–231. London: Duckworth.
Morrison, Blake
2003 Oedipus and Antigone by Sophocles. Halifax: Northern Broadsides.
2010 “Translating Greek Drama for Performance.” In Theorising Performance: Greek Drama, Cultural History and Critical Practice, ed. by Edith Hall, and Stephanie Harrop, 252–266. London: Duckworth.
O’Driscoll, Dennis
2008 Stepping Stones: Interviews with Seamus Heaney. London: Faber.
Parker, Jan
2001 Dialogic Education and the Problematics of Translation in Homer and Greek Tragedy. Lampeter: Mellon Press.
Perris, Simon
2010 “Performance Reception and the ‘Textual Twist’: Towards a Theory of Literary Reception.” In Theorising Performance: Greek Drama, Cultural History and Critical Practice, ed. by Edith Hall, and Stephanie Harrop, 181–191. London: Duckworth.
Selaiha, Nehad
2002 Review of Antigone (Falaki Theatre). Al Ahram Weekly. 5851. May 9–13.
2011 “Antigone in Egypt.” In Antigone on the Contemporary World Stage, ed. by Erin Mee, and Helene Foley, 343–372. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Taplin, Oliver
1977 The Stagecraft of Aeschylus. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
1978 Greek Tragedy in Action. London: Routledge.
2002 “Contemporary Poetry and Classics.” In Classics in Progress:Essays on Ancient Greece and Rome, ed. by T.P. Wiseman, 1–19. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Walton, Michael J
2006 Found in Translation: Greek Drama in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wertenbaker, Timberlake
1992 The Thebans. London: Faber.
Wiles, David
2000 Greek Theatre Performance: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2007 “Translating Greek Theatre.” Theatre Journal 59 (3): 363–366.
Williamson, Margaret
1998 “Intercultural Translation.” Guest lecture at the Centre for British and Comparative Cultural Studies. University of Warwick, UK 1998.
Zarifi, Yana
2009 “Chorus and Dance in the Ancient World.” In The Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman Theatre, ed. by Marianne McDonald, and Michael Walton, 227–246. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cited by
Cited by 4 other publications
Blakesley, Jacob
2018. Tony Harrison the Translator: “Life’s a Performance. Either Join in / Lightheartedly, or Thole the Pain”. English Studies 99:1 ► pp. 51 ff. 
Dunbar, Zachary & Stephe Harrop
2018. Introduction. In Greek Tragedy and the Contemporary Actor, ► pp. 1 ff.
Karunanayake, Dinithi & Ruhanie Perera
2023. Memory as Method, Translaboration as Practice. In Translaboration in Analogue and Digital Practice [Transkulturalität – Translation – Transfer, 57], ► pp. 161 ff.
Qi, Lintao
2023. Ballet diplomacy: Political agency in the Japanese adaptation ofThe White-Haired Girl. Adaptation 16:1 ► pp. 13 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 8 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.