The author recognises the influence of her activity as an American stage director in her translation of Tambours sur la digue. It made her transform its puppets into ‘characters’, by ascribing to them a colloquial language that gave the puppets a more human presence. She examines several passages of her first translation and compares them to the second version, written with Brian Mallet. Miller concludes that, in her case, and perhaps due to the ‘incompatibility’ of Cixous’s and her own theatrical language, the only way to respect the force of the original text has been working together with another translator.