home

Search:
Enter keywords...
Enter keywords...

[ playwright | screenwrite | renova-theatre | inspiration study | AISLE SAY ]

playwrites

It Ain't English:
Reflections on Staging Original American Plays in Britain

Manchester, England

By Jeff Johnson..The Global Guy..page4

To "Anglicize," in a strict sense, means to make "more English," but the idea also refers to any attempt to transform a text depicting a situation in another culture and to recast it in a British field with localized references. The more foreign the original text, the more easily adaptable it is because in a truly foreign text, the frames of reference must be totally restructured if any meaning beyond the physical performance is to be conveyed. Jokes, metaphors, word games, cultural and political allusions must be thoroughly reworked until, in effect, a new text is created which may only resemble the original but which nevertheless retains its essential qualities. A play, however, that is close to the culture and language in which it is to be staged, but not of it, as an American play would be in England, requires a more radical rewrite than most are willing to admit. Too often the temptation is merely to adjust the text, and this can be disastrous. This relunctance to accept the fact that England, to an American, is really a foreign country may be based on the assumption that English is English and because we can read each other's language we can "perform" it too. But the most important thing to understand is that just because the written language is similar, the dramatic language is not even close. No American, for example, would say, "He did a runner on his way to the loo, pinched me last two quid and pissed off with his mates." Instead, she might say, "He was going to the bathroom, but instead he ripped me off for my last two bucks and went out drinking with his friends." Remember: to "Anglicize" means to rework totally the original idea, with a different language and context, and to do that the writer had better be well-immersed in the culture or the result will ring like an aluminum bell (the British say aluminium).

I don't mean to discourage anyone from seeking a venue for her work in Britain. Having had over a half-dozen plays performed in Manchester, I can attest to the rewards of the experience. The small regional and university theatres are rich, vibrant and well attended with intelligent, passionate and at times caustic, hyper-critical audiences. They are also open to reading new plays by new writers, and developing projects with full support and excellent resources should they take one on. But it's not as easy as it seems, and if you do get a play on its feet "over there," be prepared for, if not more peculiar, at least the same, and perhaps more difficult, kinds of problems you would encounter translating your work into any foreign language. END

[Back]

[home]