Readings and workshop, 26.-27.09.2022, English Theatre Berlin
The translation of political plays requires a special approach – in addition to linguistic transfer, contexts, sociopolitical discourses and also theatre traditions must be conveyed. Translation and Political Theatre deals with two important political playwrights – Czech playwright Roman Sikora and the translations of his plays into German by Barbora Schnelle, along with the late Israeli playwright Hanoch Levin and the translations of his plays into German by Matthias Naumann. The occasion for these events is the publication of two anthologies of plays by each of these playwrights in the book series Drama Panorama published by Neofelis Verlag.
Photo: Jan Lipovský
Along with two readings, we also invite anyone with an interest to the workshop, where we’ll present two introductory lectures by our guests and ask about the more general conditions and challenges for translating political theatre. What contextualisation does the translation of political theatre in particular demand? On the other hand, how do certain interests in the target country determine which playwrights gets translated and more importantly performed? What influences, in both content and form, whether a political play is translated and performed?
The two-day event begins with a staged reading from Roman Sikora’s dramas on 26.09.2022 at 20:00. We will read from the plays Schloss an der Loire and Drei Tage oder Abstieg und Aufstieg des Herrn B. from the book Frühstück mit Leviathan. Theaterstücke (Berlin, Neofelis, 2021, ed. by Barbora Schnelle). The author Roman Sikora, his translator Barbora Schnelle and publisher Matthias Naumann will then discuss Sikora’s work in a panel discussion afterwards.
On the second day, 27.09.2022, we will begin the workshop on Translating Political Theatre at 10:30, where we will examine the topic in all its complexity using our guests’ lectures as a starting point and illustrate the problem with selected text examples.
On the evening of the 27.09.2022, the second reading, this time of Hanoch Levin’s work, will take place at 20:00. We will read extracts from Das Kind träumt and other plays from the book Die im Dunkeln gehen (Berlin: Neofelis 2022, ed. by Matthias Naumann) and present Levin’s work in a discussion with the translator Matthias Naumann, theatre studies scholar Freddie Rokem and director Antje Thoms.
As well as that, additional readings and discussions will take place at the Leipzig and Frankfurt Book Fairs, where political plays from the two books will be presented.
An event by Drama Panorama: Forum für Übersetzung und Theater e. V. as part of the project panorama #2: übertheaterübersetzen, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and the Deutscher Übersetzerfonds as part of the Neustart Kultur programme as well as the Deutsch-Tschechischen Zukunftsfonds. In cooperation with Neofelis Verlag and the taz.
