Translation and adaptation are often inextricably linked.-Is a given work a translation, an adaptation or a mixture of both - a piece of transadaptation? Derek Walcott's version of The Joker of Seville raises this very question. This paper examines the treatment of the main themes of the play, the plot and identifies the innovations introduced by the playwright to adapt cultural meaning and reconstruct a new text in order to make issues that were paramount during the Golden Age of literature in Spain, relevant to a 20th Century audience.