Theatrical Adaptation Research Articles

Ajalooline müüt Jaan Kaplinski draamas „Neljakuningapäev“ [Historical Myth in Jaan Kaplinski’s "Day of the Four Kings"

Ajalooline naidend voimaldab end žanrina erinevalt tolgendada – nii sužeepohise rekonstruktsiooni kui ka kaasaegse allegooriana. 1960.–1970. aastate eesti draamas kasutasid mitmed autorid umberutleva moistukone vormi, et kasitleda teemasid, mille otsene valjendamine olnuks keeruline voi isegi voimatu. Uht kujukamat naidet pakub siin Jaan Kaplinski draama „Neljakuningapaev“, milles 1343. aasta Jurioo ulestousu sundmused on asetatud kaasaegse suvilapeo konteksti. Tekkinud paralleel osutus sedavord konekaks, et naidendi esmalavastus Tallinna Draamateatris 1977. aastal peaaegu maha vaikiti ning sisuliselt isegi keelustati. Kumme aastat hiljem Eesti NSV Riiklikus Noorsooteatris lavale joudnud „Neljakuningapaeva“ uustolgendus, mis lahtus uksnes valisest sundmusekujutusest, ei omandanud aga esmalavastusele ligilahedastki tahendust. Seega eeldab ajalooline muudidraama tolgendajatelt nii allegooriale sobivat kunstilist nagemust kui ka selle kontseptuaalselt veenvat lahtimotestamist. Votmesonad: muudidraama, Jurioo ulestous, Jaan Kaplinski, ajalooline muut, allegooriline draama ----------- This paper examines the phenomenon of historical myth, presented in the form of a piece of theatre. Jaan Kaplinski’s historical and allegorical drama Day of the Four Kings is presented as a prime example. The play is based on a well-known historical event, namely the brutal murder of ancient Estonian chiefs by German conquerors during the rebellion of 1343 (St. George’s Night Rebellion). As Estonian theatre researcher Piret Kruuspere has noted, during the 1970s, re-tellings of national history on the Estonian theatre stage were clothed in metaphors, allusions and secret codes – Aesopian language. In addition to this secret code, the author of Day of the Four Kings used a kind of doubling, placing historical events into the setting of a contemporary house party. This change of perspective causes some degree of alienation as well as amplifies the essential allegorical message of the drama. Representing the real run of historical events, the play is effectively communicating with a contemporary audience, dealing with the problems and themes closely connected with contemporary society. In addition to its allegorical meaning, the play underlines the importance of maintaining ethnical and archaic values and warns against sacrificing these in return for short-time utilitarian purposes. The allegory of the play was even too obvious, so that the first production of the play (in 1977) was practically banned by the official powers of Soviet Estonia. Contrary to the first stage performance of the play, the second attempt – which took place a decade later – was an unfortunate example of the disappearance of the mythical dimension of the drama. This kind of poor production was no longer able to overcome the historical-cultural and national psychological contradictions inherent in the play. The analysis is mainly based on reviews of the play from the period as well as the social and cultural conditions in existence when the theatrical versions were staged. It is easy to conclude that during the process of producing this kind of stage play, it is far more fruitful to accent all kind of allusions and allegorical metaphors than to simply follow the formal development of the external plot. If the mythical dimension disappears, the message of the play loses its essential meaning. Keywords: mythology, mythical drama, St. George’s Night Rebellion, Jaan Kaplinski, historical myth, national myth, deconstruction, allegorical drama

Translocal Performance in Asian Theatre and Film by Iris H. Tuan

Reviewed by: Translocal Performance in Asian Theatre and Film by Iris H. Tuan Annie Katsura Rollins TRANSLOCAL PERFORMANCE IN ASIAN THEATRE AND FILM. By Iris H. Tuan. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. 177 pp. Cloth, $54.99. In her new book, Translocal Performance in Asian Theatre and Film, Iris H. Tuan examines the topic of Asian performance through a translocal lens, inquiring deeply into the invisible ways in which the local has influenced global trends of intercultural performance. The book's thesis, which posits that the "binary opposition between the specific and the universal is gradually disappearing into translocality" (p. 33), is supported by fourteen wide-ranging case studies that illustrate recent intercultural and translocal works for the stage and screen produced and performed in Taiwan. As a professor at Taiwan's National Chiao Tung University, Tuan pulls together an array of current theatre and film works influenced by Taiwan's unique migratory and political history to illustrate how local trends in performance shape our global appetites. The book's short introduction identifies translocal movements of shifting cultures, increasing modernity, and adaptation in the digital age and the changing relationship these changes have on performances, as they flow in and through the diverse island of Taiwan. Tuan identifies these translocal movements as central to any study of Asian performance, explaining that, "we need new perspectives that chart these emerging mobile geographies and new methodologies of interpreting the performance in Asian theatre and film" (p. 2). Chapters Three to Eleven are divided up into two parts: (1) Intercultural Theatre in Taiwan and (2) From Local to Global: Hakka, Dance, Chinese Musical, and Film. The first grouping of chapters deal with two theatrical adaptations of Shakespeare which performed for local Taiwan audiences and an adapted novel by Tsaihua Tuan, entitled To Send Away Under Escort. In all three of these productions, Tuan shows that both show makers and audiences are evolving towards more [End Page 512] locally relevant productions rather than solely valuing the import of international theatre. Particularly interesting is Tuan's chapter on Contemporary Legend Theatre's recent adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which she does not ultimately deem a successful production, but uses the company's history and this particular performance to chart a changing philosophy of "rejuvenation" for traditional xiqu and jingju opera. Notably, where Taiwan had previously been apt to present Shakespeare productions that resembled those in the UK, the trend has begun a shift towards featuring more Asian and Chinese aesthetics, conventions and contexts. In Part 2, Tuan focuses on the rise of Hakka productions in Taiwan, as well as translocal stage musicals and two films. Chapters Six and Seven look at two Hakka productions close up and show how the recent transformation from traditional Hakka three-role tea dramas to musicals and operas adapted for TV, "reflects how, under the influence of Westernization and globalization, the performing arts has sought out originality in the process of modernization, to endow performances with the new cultural translocal creativity" (p. 65). The book's contribution to the belated but growing body of research on Hakka performance is significant. Tuan's book is one of the only monographs to cover Hakka performance with such focus, increasing its visibility within the Asian performance discourse. Chapter Ten is a stylistic surprise as Tuan takes inspiration from Marvin Carlson to write the book chapter from her personal experience. The result is a lively and engaging emotional ride into Tuan's visceral response to The Great Buddha+, a violent and viral local film directed by Hsin-yao Huang. The writing is so lively, in fact, that it makes the reader wish she had infused a bit more of the style throughout the entire book. While the collection of case studies can feel wide-reaching and the main argument meanders at times, the translocal lens ties the chapters together to keep the reader reflecting on the ways in which performance homogenization under increasing globalization has spawned new modes of translocal resistance within Asian performance. Due to the book's preponderance of case studies and de-emphasis on foundational theories and methodologies, this text feels best suited for graduate students or scholars in related...

La transmodalización intermodal en la obra de Manuel Puig: El beso de la mujer araña.

Manuel Puig’s novel Kiss of the Spider Woman (1976) presents two apparently opposed characters whose face-off allows the writer to address issues as fiercely silenced as sexual and gender identity or political nonconformity. This article analyzes the changes introduced by the Argentine writer in his theatrical adaptation of the novel in 1981.

Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men: A Reader’s Companion by Jonathan S. Cullick

Reviewed by: Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men: A Reader’s Companion by Jonathan S. Cullick Anne E. Marshall Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men: A Reader’s Companion. By Jonathan S. Cullick. (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2018. Pp. xvi, 124. $24.95, ISBN 978-0-8131-7592-8.) The Kentucky Humanities Council chose Robert Penn Warren’s brilliant, but famously challenging, novel All the King’s Men (1946) as the 2018–2019 featured [End Page 953] book for its yearlong “Kentucky Reads” initiative. The council, in partnership with the University Press of Kentucky, commissioned Jonathan S. Cullick, a professor of English at Northern Kentucky University, to author a guide to help the reading public navigate and think about the novel. It is a task for which Cullick, a scholar of Robert Penn Warren and the literature of the U.S. South, is well suited. As Cullick tells us, All the King’s Men was a logical selection for “Kentucky Reads” not only because Warren had Kentucky roots, but also because the novel speaks so directly to the current political moment. While Cullick does not draw them extensively or explicitly, there are clear parallels between the novel’s main character, Willie Stark, the literary epitome of a populist demagogue, and more than a few contemporary state and national politicians. Stark’s inflammatory rhetorical style, which plays to the fears and sense of alienation of his constituents rather than to their intellect, should certainly seem familiar to modern readers. Accordingly, Cullick has organized this book around the question: “How is All the King’s Men relevant in our time, decades after its publication?” (p. xiv). He has taken a couple of approaches to answering it. One is to consult public figures themselves. In the process of writing this reader’s companion, he reached out to dozens of state lawmakers, university presidents, and other public officials to get their take on when they encountered Warren’s novel and how it shaped their political mentality. He also considers the relative merits of the film and theater adaptations of the novel. Other chapters feel like traditional, but still very accessible, literary criticism. In them, Cullick examines other political themes from the novel, including the role of rhetoric, the corrupting nature of power, and the uneasy relationship between pragmatism and idealism. There is also an appendix containing provocative questions that would be useful in any group discussion. Cullick’s research and commentary will help readers form their own insights for what Warren’s novel has to tell readers about the nature of contemporary politics. In the end, however, he notes that the book has as much to say about the responsibility of citizens living within a democracy as it does their leaders. After all, demagogues can only succeed with the help of voters. As Cullick asserts, “The support and the votes that we citizens possess belong to us; they are ours to give or withhold freely. We must hold leaders accountable, of course, but we must also hold ourselves accountable” (p. 85). In order to vote well, we must be “mindful of our own needs and our own vulnerabilities to political candidates who appeal to those needs” (p. 85). This slim volume fulfills its purpose of helping readers navigate All the King’s Men. It is a testament to both the importance of the public intellectual service that humanities faculty perform and the invaluable role that university presses play in the intellectual health of the states in which they operate. Anne E. Marshall Mississippi State University Copyright © 2019 The Southern Historical Association

Greek Fragments in Postmodern Frames: Rewriting Tragedy 1970–2005 by Eleftheria Ioannidou

Reviewed by: Greek Fragments in Postmodern Frames: Rewriting Tragedy 1970–2005 by Eleftheria Ioannidou Margherita Laera Eleftheria Ioannidou. Greek Fragments in Postmodern Frames: Rewriting Tragedy 1970–2005. Classical Presences Series. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2017. xii + 240 pp. Cloth, $95. Eleftheria Ioannidou's first monograph is a welcome addition to classical reception studies from a scholar equally embedded in the disciplines of classics and theatre and performance studies, whose level of expertise and fluency in both academic fields and several European languages is remarkable. The volume examines the relationship between the notion of tragedy and postmodern theory and aesthetics through an analysis of a series of plays which rewrite ancient dramatic material. In the past few decades, the debate about contemporary theatrical adaptations of Greek tragedy in western drama has been dominated by classical scholars based at, or associated with, the Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama (APGRD) research centre at the University of Oxford, founded by Edith Hall and Oliver Taplin in 1996; Ioannidou is currently an Early-Career Associate member, despite being based in the Netherlands as a Lecturer in Theatre. Publications from the international pool of eminent, mid- and early-career APGRD scholars have flooded the market since the year 2000, notably with volumes such as Edith Hall, Fiona Macintosh and Amanda Wrigley's edited collection Dionysus Since 69: Greek Tragedy at the Dawn of the Third Millennium (2004). The present study emerged as a doctoral thesis supervised at Oxford by the now Director of APGRD, Fiona Macintosh, and operates within the same territory of Dionysus Since 69; it dissects western playwrights' re-imaginings of Athenian tragedy from the 1970s to the early years of the 21st century, but Ioannidou's point of departure is narrower in focus. In line with her colleagues at APGRD, however, she privileges textual analysis over a theorization of performance, despite the word "performance" being in the title of the research centre. Greek Fragments in Postmodern Frames takes its cue from Terry Eagleton's position, articulated in Sweet Violence: The Idea of the Tragic (2003), that postmodernism and its inherent conservatism is incompatible with tragedy as a genre, aesthetic category and structure of feeling because "if human beings are fragments, they are not even coherent enough to be the bearers of tragic meaning" (Eagleton quoted in Ioannidou, 2). Relying on and extending Raymond Williams' historical materialism in Modern Tragedy (1966), Ioannidou's project is therefore to show how tragedy is "not a single and permanent kind of fact, but a series of experiences, conventions and institutions" (Williams quoted in Ioannidou, 25) [End Page 373] that can be adapted to suit different historical periods and literary movements, including postmodernism. The overarching argument proposed by Ioannidou is that the prevalent postmodern gesture is to "undo" Greek texts in order to question the "system of exclusions or oppression that have been inscribed in them within a long history of reception" (4). She continues: "Greek tragedy itself is subjected to critique both as a category used to legitimize acts of retribution as well as a dramatic form that epitomizes the historical paradigm of the Western world, not least in its failings and discontents" (4). After a discussion of the modern critical debate on tragedy—from Nietzsche to Steiner, Brecht, Benjamin, Williams, Vernant and Vidal-Naquet, Eagleton, Maffessoli—Ioannidou proceeds to examine three plays that "propose a new ethics of appropriation of the canon" and "introduce a politics of viewing that transposes the ethical question into the process of reception" (71); namely Steven Berkoff's Greek (1994), Hélène Cixous's La ville parjure (1994) and Martin Crimp's Cruel and Tender (2004). According to Ioannidou, these plays "break with tragedy as a category that reaffirms aesthetic hierarchies and cultural hegemonies and invite audiences to reflect on the ways in which suffering is mediated, contained, and evaluated" (71). Ioannidou then turns to investigate how postmodern tragedies engage with metatheatre, with reference to Pavlos Matesis' Roar (1998), Andreas Staïkos' Clytemnestra? (1975), Brian Friel's Living Quarters: After Hippolytus (1977), Athol Fugard's The Island (1973), and Dario Fo and Franca Rame's La Medea (1977). Here, Ioannidou contends that rewritings by Matesis...

Quarto de Despejo no Palco: Staging Authenticity in Representations of Brazilian Poverty

Carolina Maria de Jesus (1915–1977) is best known as the author of Quarto de Despejo (1960), a diary written on scraps of paper scavenged from the garbage while its author resided in a Brazilian favela. This article explores how the 1961 eponymous theatrical adaptation of this diary recreated her favela experiences for the stage in unusual ways. In the name of verisimilitude, the play’s producers organized cast visits to the favela and dressed the set with both Carolina’s belongings and discarded objects donated by the public. Using MacCannell’s continuum of the “staged authenticity” of tourist experiences as a framework, I demonstrate how the play’s producers incorporated people and objects from the favela into their theatrical production to provide their audience with a carefully assembled “authentic” glimpse of the other, arguing that Quarto’s audience engaged in an early form of poverty tourism by visiting a recreated place outside of their normal environment.

Henry V by the Saitama Arts Theater

Reviewed by: Henry Vby the Saitama Arts Theater Kitamura Sae Henry VPresented at the Saitama Arts Theater, Saitama, Japan. 02 8–24, 2019. Directed by Yoshida Kotaro. Music by Kojima Ryosuke and Nakahara Hiroaki. Sound by Kakubari Masao. Set design by Akiyama Mitsuhiro. Costumes by Miyamoto Nobuko. Lighting by Harada Tamotsu. Translation by Matsuoka Kazuko. Assistant script editor, Ichimura Naotaka. With Matsuzaka Tori (Henry V), Yoshida Kotaro (Chorus), Mizobata Junpei (Dauphin of France), Yokota Eiji (King of France), Nakagauchi Masataka (Pistol), Kochi Yamato (Fluellen), Miyazaki Yumeko (Katherine), and others. Under the auspices of its late artistic director Ninagawa Yukio, the Saitama Arts Theater strove to produce the complete plays of Shakespeare and achieved generally solid, if sometimes mixed, results. Unfortunately, Ninagawa passed away in 2016, having directed thirty-two of Shakespeare's plays while leaving the relatively unpopular or difficult works unproduced. Yoshida Kotaro, one of Ninagawa's favorite leading actors, took over the responsibility for Saitama's Shakespeare series. He directed Timon of Athensas his first project in 2017, which was well received and regarded as a promising start for the new artistic director's tenure. Yoshida's second project was Henry V, the thirty-fourth production of the series. Matsuzaka Tori returned as Henry V, six years after he played Prince Hal in Ninagawa's Henry IV. The director himself played the Chorus. Henry Vhas never been popular in Japan and is rarely performed, but the 2018–2019 season was a rare occasion for Japanese theatergoers to enjoy two high-profile Henry Vproductions in the Greater Tokyo Area. The New National Theatre in Tokyo produced Henry Vfrom May 17 to June 3, 2018, directed by Uyama Hitoshi and starring Urai Kenji, a popular young stage actor, as Henry V. The same team had already successfully staged Henry VIin 2009, Richard IIIin 2012, and Henry IVin 2016; critics praised Henry Vfor its brutal portrayal of conflict, war, and sexual politics. Saitama's Henry Vwas under pressure to stand out against its predecessor. The result was, to say the least, very disappointing. Akiyama Mitsuhiro's medieval-style set was elaborate, although it could not escape the visual influence of Uyama's production, with both adopting partly dilapidated wooden scaffolds and frames scattered across the stage. Akiyama's set was brown in tone, and it matched Miyamoto Nobuko's medieval costumes with a hint of modern flair; most actors wore black and grey, while the capes of bright colors, such as red and blue, stood out. In the [End Page 444]first half, Yoshida's production looked somewhat duller than Uyama's spectacular setting, which had used wood and water abundantly. In the last half of Yoshida's Henry V, however, a watchtower occupying the center stage was moved and the space was more freely and dynamically used. The whole stage looked like a theatrical version of Saving Private Ryan. However, the production's issues were primarily grounded not in the set but in the severe cutting of the text, which resulted in an unintentionally incoherent play. Most strikingly, although the production visually recalled Saving Private Ryanand its spiritual sequel Band of Brothers, Henry's famous "St Crispin's Day" speech was almost entirely cut, keeping only a few lines including "he today that sheds his blood with me / Shall be my brother" (4.3.61–62); the production had no mention of St Crispin's Day, "band of brothers," or "we happy few" (4.3.60) at all. I have never seen—or even remotely imagined—a Henry Vproduction without the St Crispin's Day speech, perhaps the play's single most iconic moment, and surely a draw for any actor of the role. Ironically, in watching this bold attempt to produce the play without it, the importance of the speech became apparent. This speech is so essential to the character development of Henry V and so closely connected to the entire structure that the play could be incoherent without it. Matsuzaka Tori, a popular and critically acclaimed young actor, played Henry V as a gloomy, broody, and anxiety-ridden young man struggling to survive as an...

Sobre adaptaciones teatrales de novelas cervantinas. Un caso de comedia decimonónica: <em>Rinconete y Cortadillo</em> de Vicente Colorado

Este trabajo estudia por primera vez una adaptación teatral de la novela ejemplar de Cervantes, Rinconete y Cortadillo, de finales del siglo XIX escrita por el dramaturgo Vicente Colorado. La comedia, apenas leída, mantiene puntos en común con la obra cervantina, a la vez que presenta diferencias muy acusadas con su modelo tanto en la conclusión como en el desarrollo novedoso de una trama sentimental.

Tel qu’en lui-même enfin l’Eternité le change. Notes sur le soi/non-soi et les avatars de David Bowie

IntroductionAs a contribution to a metapsychology of art, the author proposes a dynamic analysis of David Bowie's pluralistic and subversive artistic practice. The purpose is to illustrate the dialectic tension between me/not-me as developed by Donald W. Winnicott (1953) who determined, in the early development of the child, the first distinctions between me and not-me that contribute to the construction of the transitional object and alongside to that of cultural activity. MethodIn order to discuss the concept, the author analyses the art corpus of David Bowie (1949–2016) – one of the greatest artists of the 20th century, combining artistic practices as varied as that of singer, composer, musician, songwriter, dancer, movie and theatre actor, and painter. ResultsAfter examining four aspects of the dynamics me/not-me for this artist, – his avatars in Nicolas Roeg's cult movie The man who fell to earth (1978), his theatre adaptation of Elephant Man (1980), and his clip Lazarus (2015), it appears to be the dialectic tension between me/not-me that fuels David Bowie's multifaceted art corpus. DiscussionAs a matrix of later object distinctions, Winnicott's “me/not-me” could be heuristic in our further understanding of the creative process and its psychic dynamics. ConclusionMore research is required on other corpuses to test these first hypotheses.

Theatrical translation or theatrical adaptation? Staging Noises Off in Italy

The distinction between translation and adaptation is generally dependent on the amount of rewriting and independence of the target text, but the intercultural nature of theatrical translation and its varied addressees (actors and target audience) proves that drama requires a flexible approach to the process conducive to the target play. This article aims to demonstrate that the dramaturgical decisions related to the target play influence the balance between translation and adaptation in stage translation, which pursues a target-oriented approach. Rumori Fuori Scena, the Italian version of Michael Frayn’s Noises Off, serves as the case study for a contrastive analysis that includes the source text and the performed play. Considering that the practitioners’ experience is of utmost importance to fully understand the expectations on the translation and the identity of the target play: the practitioner’s perspective unlocks new aspects relating to the borders between theatrical adaptation and translation.

Conveyance of the Dramatic Work El Gran Galeoto by José Echegaray to the European Scene and His Reception in Bratislava at the End of the 19th Century

Abstract This study looks at the work of Spanish playwright José Echegaray and the circumstances of his domestication on the European theatre stages at the turn of the 20th century. One of his most important works, El gran Galeoto55, arrived in Bratislava in 1889, only one year after its premiere in Vienna and three years after the opening of the new building of the Bratislava City Theatre. The premiere of the work, translated into German and in a theatrical adaptation from Paul Lindau’s pen named Galeotto took place around the same time as the premiere of the work Ralph William from the domestic author Josef Julian, which thanks to a similar theme was perceived as «Bratislava’s Galeotto».

The theatrical adaptation of Merry More

The early modern play Sir Thomas More, written by Anthony Munday, Henry Chettle, Thomas Dekker, Thomas Heywood, and William Shakespeare, takes an ecumenical viewpoint of the play's Catholic hero in order to conform to the expectations of the Master of the Revels and to appeal to a cross-confessional audience. The playwrights carefully construct the play within the confines of censorship by centering the play's action around More's dynamic personality instead of giving a full exposition of historical plot. More's personality and famous wit function together as a means for diverting attention away from the controversy surrounding More's silent opposition to Henrician policy while subtly validating his martyrdom. The argument of this article examines the adaptation of the play's ideologically diverse source material, the playwrights’ use of martyrological conventions, and the subtle traces of Erasmian allusion and recusant rhetoric in its reading of the play.

Catching Othello’s echoes in Harlem Duet: A conversation on Shakespearean adaptation, blackness and African Diaspora Theatre with Djanet Sears

Caribbean Canadian playwright, actress and director Djanet Sears has created theatre pieces that explore Canadian manifestations of the African diaspora for over three decades. Her works include the autobiographical play Afrika Solo (1990), Double Trouble (1988), The Mother Project (1990), Who Killed Katie Ross (1994) and The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God (2002). Between 1995 and 1996, Sears developed Harlem Duet (1997), a theatrical adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Othello that explores the intersection of racism and sexism in North American black communities, and how interlocking systems of oppression infiltrate the psyche of black people and their most intimate relationships. In an interview conducted in July 2016 at the University of Toronto Art Centre, Sears discusses the factors that attracted her to drama and theatre, her acting training and early career, the genesis and the making of Harlem Duet, as well as its most important North American productions. She also elucidates how the blues aesthetic and black feminism informed her Shakespearean adaptation of Othello in ways that helped her to counter stereotypical representations of black masculinity and black womanhood produced within dominant discourses.

Beethoven Translating Shakespeare: Dramatic Models for the Slow Movement of the String Quartet Op. 18, No. 1

According to a footnote in a treatise on music aesthetics of 1856, Beethoven claimed to have had in mind the scene in the burial vault in Romeo and Juliet when he composed the Adagio of op. 18, no. 1. The Shakespeare connection has persisted because, as scholars since Nottebohm have noticed, it is supported by four (French-language) inscriptions in Beethoven's sketches. We ought to ask, however, Which version of the vault scene—that is, which Romeo and Juliet? As a consequence of eighteenth-century practices of theatrical adaptation, the play was available in various forms. Among contemporary French sources, Steibelt's opera (1793) may be ruled out as a model. Jean-François Ducis's adaptation (1772) shows striking concordances with the sketchbook inscriptions, but we have no direct evidence that Beethoven knew it. He arguably knew three different stage versions—all unlikely models: Weiße's bourgeois tragedy (1767) rejected Shakespeare's ending; Gotter and Benda's singspiel rendition (1776) ended happily; and Zingarelli's tragedia per musica (1796) had the title characters sing a final duet in E-flat major, despite the tragic circumstances. Among the available translations, Beethoven acquired Eschenburg's Romeo und Julia (1779 or earlier), but probably not before composing his quartet. However, the appearance in Berlin of A. W. Schlegel's translation of the vault scene coincided with Beethoven's arrival there in May 1796. This masterful poetical translation may have planted the idea realized in the Adagio of op. 18, no. 1. We know (from a letter of 1810) how highly Beethoven regarded Schlegel's translation, Schindler's assertions to the contrary notwithstanding.

Writing and Adapting Disability: Galdós’ Marianela and Pablo Messiez’s Los ojos

Drawing on David Mitchell and Sharon Snyder’s concept of narrative prosthesis to refer to both the pervasive presence of disability in mainstream discourse and the conventions used to represent it, this article compares how disability is handled in Benito Pérez Galdós’ novel, Marianela and in its theatrical adaptation, Los ojos, by the Argentinian playwright Pablo Messiez. In his novel Galdós seemingly follows the typical pattern of representing disability through his curing of Pablo’s blindness, but then he subverts that pattern by using Marianela’s death and burial to draw attention to the artificiality of the conventions aimed at eliminating disability from narratives. In his adaptation, Messiez shifts the focus from disability to nationality, transforming Nela and her mother into Argentine immigrants living in Spain. Through them he exposes the Otherness experienced by immigrants which marginalizes them, and he undermines the stigma of foreignness by redefining the concept of national identity. In so doing, however, Messiez eliminates Galdós’ challenge to mainstream representations of disability, allowing his play to follow the standard pattern identified by Mitchell and Snyder.

ПЬЕСЫ А.П. ЧЕХОВА «ИВАНОВ» И «ВИШНЕВЫЙ САД» В ИНТЕРПРЕТАЦИИ ВЕНГЕРСКИХ РЕЖИССЕРОВ

В данной статье представлено исследование театральных постановок драм А.П. Чехова в Венгрии. В центре внимания автора пьесы А.П. Чехова Иванов и Вишневый сад. В рамках работы дается обзор самых значительных постановок чеховских пьес с начала XX до начала XXI в. Выделяются постановки, представляющие основные направления интерпретации пьес русского автора венгерскими режиссерами. Особое внимание уделяется также проблеме перевода, ориентирующего режиссера и актера в процессе постановки на сцене, а зрителя в процессе восприятия The paper looks at theatrical adaptations of A. Chekhovs dramas in Hungary with a particular focus on Ivanov and The Cherry Orchard. The author provides a critical overview of the most prominent adaptations of A. Chekhovs plays. It identifies those theatrical adaptations that serve as the key avenues in Hungarian directors vision of A. Chekhovs works. The analysis is based on the presentday critical reflections, on the photographs of the performances and on the experiences of modern theatregoers. Our review focuses primarily on genrerelated features of stage adaptations, sidescenes and acting. At the same time central to the research is the problem of translations of A. Chekhovs works into Hungarian which serve as the reference point for the director and the actors when staging the play and the viewer when watching the performance.Unlike A. Chekhovs prosaic works which were translated into Hungarian and first published in the late 19th century, his dramas were first staged in Hungary in the 1920s. Ivanov was first adapted for stage by Dniel Jb in Comedy Theatre of Budapest in 1923. A year later he delivered a stage adaptation of The Cherry Orchard. The theatre history was marked by two watershed events. The Moscow Art Theatre brought The Cherry Orchard to Budapest. K. Stanislavskys troupe presented their version of The Three Sisters, the psychological realism of which had a strong impact on Sndor Hevesis adaptation of Seagull in the 1930s. Yet, a real breakthrough for A. Chekhov on the theatre stage was seen only in the 1960s and 1970s. It was prompted by renewed and reinvented theatre adaptation of Anton Chekhovs language both globalwise and in Hungary. This period was marked by Ivanov directed by Endre Marton in 1971 and Gbor Zsmbki in 1977 as well as The Cherry Orchard staged by Istvn Horvai in 1974. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries there appeared new stage adaptations of A. Chekhovs plays including Gbor Szkelys Ivanov in 1996. The biggest success was the production directed by Tams Ascher in 2004 which won the Golden Mask in Moscow. The analysis of the last phase in A. Chekhovs stage adaptation showed that the recent translations by Gyrgy Spir (then Gza Morcsnyi and Julia Ungr) have given a new impetus to the interpretation of The Cherry Orchard. This can be best seen in the productions by Pter Vall in 2005, Rbert Alfldi in 2007 and Sndor Zstr in 2013.

The Essence of 2.5-Dimensional Musicals? Sakura Wars and Theater Adaptations of Anime

This paper examines 2.5-Dimensional musicals, or theater adaptations of anime/manga/videogames. As the genre has been gaining popularity in Japan since around 2007, criticism on the genre began to appear. What they uncritically assume is that the pioneer of the genre was the theater adaptation of Prince of Tennis first produced in 2003, and the unique mise-en-scène that attempts to recreate the “world” of the original, including the characters, setting, and the characters’ extreme skills of tennis, is a hallmark of the genre. However, such a view fails to consider the fact that these are actually merely characteristics of a subgenre of 2.5-Dimensional musicals represented by Prince of Tennis and other similar shows. This paper argues that another show, namely the theater adaptation of the videogame Sakura Wars, first produced in 1997 and continuing to this day, actually presents a number of important questions and viewpoints that are useful and necessary to critically discuss the genre, such as how two-dimensional characters are materialized on stage, which role audiences play in that process, how 2.5-Dimensional musicals can be contextualized within conventional theater genres rather than a part of “media mix” strategies, and tension between the local and global in their production and consumption.

Negentiende-eeuwse Nederlandse toneelbewerkingen van Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables

Abstract Theatrical Adaptations of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables in 19th-century Netherlands In the field of Adaptation Studies, in Anglo-Saxon countries and even more in the Netherlands, filming and not theatrical adaptation is focus of attention. In this article – a case study on Dutch theatrical adaptations of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables – is shown what this type of historical research into ‘page-to-stage’ appropriations can yield. In the 1860s adaptations of Hugo’s famous novel received a lot of attention in Dutch newspapers. Most reviewers seem to sympathise with the social criticism, manifested in Les Misérables. The critical debate over this type of theatrical adaptations is enlightening for scholars interested in the grey area between popular and more elitist culture.

Poor Theatre, Rich Theatre

The article analyzes two Finnish theatre adaptations of Fanny och Alexander, by Ingmar Bergman, and Rauta-aika, by Paavo Haavikko, premiered in 2010 and 2011 respectively. The key question is, how the two works brought the filmic originals’ wealth of material to theatrically manageable proportions, and how the themes of poverty and prosperity were developed by their scenic machineries – a question of theatricality, but also, if you will, of a sort of theatrical exchange: “golden age” to exile or decline in the story-worlds, lavish film to theatrical constraint in production. The first two sections take a specifically economic perspective on the original TV projects and their central storylines; the two final sections address how these storylines were locally woven by the revolving stage and the revolving auditorium used in the theatre productions. On various levels, a playfully “monetary” distinction of metonymy and metaphor is suggested in which metonymic contiguity stands for contextual prosperity (as experience, community, immediacy), metaphoric substitution for relative deprivation (as distance, abstraction, exchange).

“The Bright Shapes Were Going”

The article considers a theatrical adaptation of the “Benjy Chapter” from William Faulkner’s 1928 novel The Sound and the Fury created by the experimental theatre company Elevator Repair Service (ERS) and presented at the Public Theater in New York in the spring of 2015. Told from the perspective of Benjy Compson, Faulkner’s text contains one of the most significant and complex representations of a mentally disabled character in modern American literature. The article examines how ERS attempted to evoke Benjy’s consciousness using the specific affordances of theatrical performance. It argues that the ERS production asks questions about theatrical form in ways that echo and yet significantly diverge from the questions that Faulkner’s novel asks about literary form. In so doing, it further suggests that the emerging discourses of neurodiversity and neurodivergence offer powerful new methodological possibilities for theatre and performance studies.