This essay examines the changing notion of performability in stage translation, a concept which is analysed from textual, theatrical, and ideological perspectives. From a textual point of view, performability is often equated with 'speakability' or 'breathability', i.e. the ability to produce fluid texts which performers may utter without difficulty. From a theatrical viewpoint, the need or will to appeal to audiences usually involves a tension between foreignization and domestication. Such decisions find their way into performance as textual strategies (e.g. dialect) or audio-visual signs (e.g. body language, design, sound, and music). Performability is also determined by the theatrical ideology of the company, and is related to questions of status. Performability involves negotiation, but should not be rejected as a concept. Rather, the essay seeks to place theatre ideology and power negotiation at the heart of performability, and make speakability and breathability relative to it.