Contemporary Performance Translation

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.