Translating canons: Shakespeare on the Noh stage

Abstract

Translating intercultural theatre is a complex practice. When Shakespeare is adapted into Asian traditional performance styles, the canonicity of the English text confronts the authenticity of the canonical performances in Asia. This essay analyses the process of intercultural translation of King Lear: His Shadows, a Noh adaptation of King Lear directed by Kurita Yoshihiro. Through the archiving process of this production in a multilingual digital archive called Asian Shakespeare Intercultural Archive (A∣S∣I∣A), which provides English translation of the script, two dimensions of the intercultural translation can be observed: the translation and adaptation from Shakespeare's English text into Noh style in the process of the original production on the one hand, and the “reverse” translation of the Japanese script into English in the process of archiving on the other. Framing the former as the “translation in Asia” and the latter as the “translation of Asia,” I examine the characteristics of each translation and the interactions between these two processes, which demonstrate the strategies employed by the director to crystallize his appreciation of Shakespeare's play.