In Translation Acts, the focus is on the creation of dramatic narratives through theatre in translation and performance. We take up travelling concepts like ’global’ and ‘tolerance’ and explore our lived experience of them. Using the creative capacity of theatre to be world-inventing, creating known and imagined worlds on stage, we question how ideas and beliefs cross cultures, time and space and how we act through the languages we use and create. In our practice we will use participants’ innate and learned language knowledge to translate and recreate theatre texts in ways that will radically intervene in our understanding of cultural co-existence in the present.
Cultural Translation through Theatre
As a practice, theatre translation demands a complex understanding of the ways in which words, ideas and concepts move across cultures. Here, we engage as translation and theatre practitioners in the study and practice of the processes of bringing new theatre texts towards us.
Performance
As parallel processes, theatre making and translation provoke questions about authorship and ownership. Whose right is it to read, interpret and retell our stories and histories? The strand works with the performer to bring our research questions into a creative space that can be used to engage new audiences.
Creating Narratives
This strand uses the capacity of theatre to be world-inventing, creating known and imagined worlds on stage. We seek to encourage language learning through playfulness, risk and the acceptance of failure. Theatre practice through translation is the perfect site for this activity.