The Different Lives of Michael Frayn’s Noises Off: An Italian Case Study
Keywords:
stage translation, adaptation, Michael Frayn, Noises Off, Italian theatre
Abstract
In stage translation, the intercultural nature of drama and the varied addressees (actors and audience) of the target play demand a flexible strategy. Performability rightfully remains a fundamental feature, only recently legitimized, of any translation written for the stage. However, the relationship between translation, adaptation and rewriting is equally important in shaping the target play.
This paper aims to introduce the director’s vision of the source play and of its possible dramaturgical improvements as a further reason behind the blurred boundary between translation and adaptation in theatre. Rumori fuori scena, the Italian version of Michael Frayn’s Noises Off, serves as the case study for a contrastive analysis which, in addition to the source text and its published translation, analyses the script currently being staged. The words of the translator and of the professionals involved are then essential to understand the practice of theatrical translation in all its steps, in order to truly devise a comprehensive theoretical framework of the issues involved in the operation.
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References
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BASSNETT, Susan, Translation Studies, London-New York, Routledge, 2002.
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REILLY, Kara, “Richard Cumberland’s The Jew And the Benevolence of The Audience: Performance and Religious Tolerance”, «Eighteenth-Century Studies», 48.4 (2015), pp. 457-477.
RICHARDS, Jeffrey (ed.), Sir Henry Irving: Theatre, Culture, And Society: Essays, Addresses, And Lecture, Keele, Ryburn Pub., 1994.
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SCOLNICOV, Hanna, HOLLAND, Peter, The Play Out of Context: Transferring Plays from Culture to Culture, Cambridge-New York, Cambridge University Press, 1989.
SHORT, Mick, Exploring the Language of Poems, Plays, and Prose, London-New York, Longman, 1996.
STEPHENSON, Robert C., “Farce as Method”, «Tulane Drama Review», 5.2 (1960), pp. 85-93.
UBERSFELD, Anne, Lire Le Théâtre, Paris, Éditions Sociales, 1977.
VANDAELE, Jeroen, “Humour In Translation”, in GAMBIER, Yves, VAN DOORSLAER, Luc (eds.) Handbook of Translation Studies, Amsterdam-Philadelphia, John Benjamin Publishing Company, 2010, pp. 147-152.
VESCOVO, Piermario, Entracte: drammaturgia del tempo, Venezia, Marsilio, 2007.
WALLIS, Mick, SHEPHERD, Simon, Studying Plays, London-Arnold-New York, Oxford University Press Inc., 2002.
BASSNETT, Susan, Translation Studies, London-New York, Routledge, 2002.
BERGSON, Henri, Il Riso. Saggio sul significato del comico, Italian translation by Federica Sossi, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2011.
BIGLIAZZI, Silvia, KOFLER, Peter, AMBROSI Paola (eds.), Theatre Translation in Performance, Abingdon, Routledge, 2013.
BUSFIELD, Roger M., The Playwright’s Art: Stage, Radio, Television, Motion Pictures, New York, Harper, 1971.
CANNINGS, Barbara, “Towards a Definition of Farce as a Literary Genre”, «The Modern Language Review», 56. 4 (1961), pp. 558-560.
CONSIGLI, Paolo, “Humor In Italy”, in ZIV, Avner (ed.), National Styles of Humor, New York, Greenwood Press, 1988, pp. 133-151.
CORTES, Ovidi Carbonell, HARDING, Sue-Ann (eds.), Routledge Handbooks in Translation and Interpreting Studies, New York, Routledge, 2018.
CRINÒ, Anna Maria, Le traduzioni di Shakespeare in Italia nel Settecento, Roma, Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 1950.
DEMARINIS, Marco, Semiotica del teatro: l’analisi testuale dello spettacolo, Milano, Bompiani, 1982.
DELABASTITA, Dirk, “A Great Feast of Languages: Shakespeare’s Multilingual Comedy in King Henry V”, «The Translator», 8.2 (2002), pp. 303-340.
ESPASA Eva, “Performability in Translation: Speakability? Playability? Or just Saleability?”, in UPTON, Carol Ann (ed.), Moving Target: Theatre Translation and Cultural Relocation, Manchester, St. Jerome Publishing, 2000, pp. 49-62.
FRAYN, Michael, “Noises Off”, in ID., Plays: 1, London, Methuen, 1997, pp. 389-522.
FRAYN, Michael, Rumori fuori scena, Italian translation by Filippo Ottoni, Genova, Costa&Nolan, 2005.
GULDIN, Rainer, Translation as Metaphor, New York, Routledge, 2015.
HOENSELAARS, Ton, Shakespeare and the Language of Translation, London, Arden Shakespeare, 2004.
HOWE, Irving, “Farce and Fiction”, «The Threepenny Review», 43 (1990), pp. 5-6.
HUTCHEON, Linda, Theory of Adaptation, London-New York, Routledge, 2006.
KATAN, David, “Translation as Intercultural Communication”, in MUNDAY, Jeremy (ed.), The Routledge Companion to Translation Studies, London-New York, Routledge, 2009, pp. 74-92.
KREBS, Katia, Translation and Adaptation in Theatre and Film, London-New York, Routledge, 2014.
LEDVINKA, Fay R. What the fuck are you talking about? Traduzione, omissione e censura nel doppiaggio e nel sottotitolaggio In Italia, Torino, Eris Edizioni, 2011.
LEE, So-Rim, “Translation, Adaptation, And Appropriation in Brook’s Mahabharata”, «New Theatre Quarterly», 34.1 (2018), pp. 74-90.
LEFEVERE, Andre (Ed.), Translation, History, Culture: A Sourcebook, London-New York, Routledge, 1992.
LIDDICOAT, Anthony J., “Translation as Intercultural Mediation: Setting the Scene”, «Perspectives: Studies in Translation Theory and Practice», 24 (2016), pp. 347- 353.
LIVIO, Gigi, La scrittura drammatica: teoria e pratica esegetica, Milano, Mursia, 1992.
LO, Jacqueline, GILBERT, Helen, “Toward a Topography of Cross-Cultural Theatre Praxis”, «TDR», 46.3 (2002), pp. 31-53.
LUERE, Jeane (ed.), Playwright Versus Director: Authorial Intentions and Performance Interpretations, Westport, Greenwood Press, 1994.
MACPHERSON, Coleen Shirin, “A New Vision for Intercultural Theatre Practice: From Toronto to London to Cairo with First Draft”, «Canadian Theatre Review», 72 (2017), pp. 110-114.
MANDALA, Susan, Twentieth-Century Drama Dialogue as Ordinary Talk: Speaking Between the Lines, Aldershot, Ashgate, 2007.
MAHER, Brigit, Recreation and Style: Translating Humorous Literature in Italian And English, Amsterdam-Philadelphia, John Benjamin Publishing Company, 2011.
MOSELEY Merritt, Understanding Michael Frayn, Columbia, University Of South Carolina Press, 2006.
PAGE, Malcolm. File on Frayn, London, Methuen Drama, 1994.
PAVIS, Patrice, Theatre at The Crossroads of Culture, English translation by Loren Kruger, London-New York, Routledge, 1992.
PFISTER, Manfred, The Theory and Analysis of Drama, English translation by John Halliday, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991.
PUGLIATTI, Paola, I segni latenti, Messina, Firenze, 1986.
REILLY, Kara, “Richard Cumberland’s The Jew And the Benevolence of The Audience: Performance and Religious Tolerance”, «Eighteenth-Century Studies», 48.4 (2015), pp. 457-477.
RICHARDS, Jeffrey (ed.), Sir Henry Irving: Theatre, Culture, And Society: Essays, Addresses, And Lecture, Keele, Ryburn Pub., 1994.
SAPIR, Edward, MANDELBAUM David (eds.), Culture, Language and Personality: Selected Essays, Berkeley-Los Angeles-London, University of California Press, 1959.
SCHANK Roger C., ABELSON, Robert P., Scripts, Plans, Goals and Understanding: An Inquiry into Human Knowledge Structures, Hilsdale, Erlbaum, 1977.
SCOLNICOV, Hanna, HOLLAND, Peter, The Play Out of Context: Transferring Plays from Culture to Culture, Cambridge-New York, Cambridge University Press, 1989.
SHORT, Mick, Exploring the Language of Poems, Plays, and Prose, London-New York, Longman, 1996.
STEPHENSON, Robert C., “Farce as Method”, «Tulane Drama Review», 5.2 (1960), pp. 85-93.
UBERSFELD, Anne, Lire Le Théâtre, Paris, Éditions Sociales, 1977.
VANDAELE, Jeroen, “Humour In Translation”, in GAMBIER, Yves, VAN DOORSLAER, Luc (eds.) Handbook of Translation Studies, Amsterdam-Philadelphia, John Benjamin Publishing Company, 2010, pp. 147-152.
VESCOVO, Piermario, Entracte: drammaturgia del tempo, Venezia, Marsilio, 2007.
WALLIS, Mick, SHEPHERD, Simon, Studying Plays, London-Arnold-New York, Oxford University Press Inc., 2002.
Published
2018-12-31
How to Cite
Fois, E. (2018). The Different Lives of Michael Frayn’s Noises Off: An Italian Case Study. Rhesis. International Journal of Linguistics, Philology and Literature, 9(2), 96-112. https://doi.org/10.13125/rhesis/5681
Section
Articoli
