Translating Italian Theatre.
A work experience at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.
A. De Martino-Cappuccio
Introduction
When I was offered to work as a translator for the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, I was
absolutely thrilled for several reasons. First, this experience fitted perfectly in my research, which
explores English translations of plays by the Neapolitan playwright Eduardo De Filippo (1900-1984).
Therefore, working in a theatrical environment was exactly what a mainly theoretical activity required,
as I could gain further knowledge from a practical view point. Furthermore, the organization I was
going to work for is one of the most prestigious in theatrical world, and being part of it represents a top
aspiration for anybody engaged in theatre. It is clear then, how I felt at the perspective of working for
the RSC. In addition, Pippo Delbono’s company, renowned for winning an Ubu Award in 1997 and the
Italian Critics’ Prize in 1998, was well known to me for its adventurous and intellectual style, and again
a great aspiration to work with. Finally, entering the world of theatre and sampling dreamlike situations
was as unique as rare an opportunity, which I was to embrace wholeheartedly.
From the 26th of January until the 3rd of February 2007, I was involved in one of The Complete
Works Festival productions, Henry V, as part of an initiative of the Royal Shakespeare Company,
aiming to stage all of Shakespeare’s thirty-seven plays, sonnets and long poems at the same event,
taking place between April 2006 and April 2007.
The objective of such an ambitious project is to offer different interpretations of the works of
who is considered to be the most important playwright in the history of theatre. Theatre companies
from across Britain and the world have been invited to present their versions of Shakespeare’s oeuvres
performed in different foreign languages as well as in English. The Director of the Complete Works
Festival, Deborah Shaw, and her assistant and co-ordinator Rachael Barber, organized the Festival in
such a way that the quintessence of English theatre could be reinterpreted in the light of the most
diverse cultures and philosophies. This was achieved through collaboration between visiting theatre
companies and the RSC. For examples, Titus Andronicus was represented in a Japanese setting by
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director Yukio Ninagawa, who employed symbolism to portray the birth of Rome by creating an
estranged effect. In the same way, Richard III was staged by an Arab company, directed by the
English-Kuwaiti director Sulayman Albassam, who set the play in an unnamed Arab country. The show
was performed in Arabic with English surtitles (since they were projected high up on screens put up in
the theatre) and made clear reference to the current political situation in the Middle East. In this
perspective, RSC invited avant-garde theatre company Compagnia Pippo Delbono from Italy, who
performed Henry V, directed by Pippo Delbono, a representation of war hysteria, where winners and
losers were both victims of the same downfall.
My involvement in the project was as a translator and a liaison person between the two
companies and between the Italian company and the Chorus, made of local non professional young
actors, who were employed to create stunning portrays of war and destruction. By working both as a
member of the hosting company and as a ‘voice’ from the acting company, I benefited from an
exceptional experience, that is, participating in the setting up of the play and observing it from the
outside, in a detached manner, which allowed me to fully introject all that was being explained and
performed. My standpoint was ubiquitous, since I shared both the audience and the artists’ perspective.
Besides, since I was conveying Pippo’s ideas, which were essential for the right execution of each
scene, I became part of the rationalizing process which stood at the base of the play. I could see things
which the audience could not see, namely the painstaking attention to details in the creation of a scene
or the inner motive of a particular movement. On the other hand, as a viewer, I was able to appreciate
the same scene from an aesthetic point of view, enjoying the artistic effect so meticulously constructed.
The present account therefore, is a journal of a unique and fulfilling experience of which I am
grateful to the RSC in the first instance and to the Compagnia Pippo Delbono to whom, now, I feel
indissolubly attached.
A journey of emotions
For the first three days the company worked away from the Swan Theatre, in the Rehearsal Rooms,
located in the Northern part of town. These days were dedicated to the creation of Chorus scenes with
young actors who had only briefly met Pippo a few months before at the audition. During this time
Pippo and Pepe, who was both actor and choreographer, shared direction. The Chorus scenes were
meticulously rehearsed over and over again, in order to achieve faultless results. It was fascinating to
see how such young, and in a way, inexperienced actors, turned into impeccable performers by simply
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executing those scrupulous instructions. My involvement at the Rehearsal Rooms gained me a total
insight of the building up of a play. I was a ravenous observer of all
the tricks of the trade, and I realized how hard being an actor can be.
Not only is it a strenuous job, it also requires high power of
concentration, since the director’s instructions must be first
understood and then memorized to be put back in the sequence. One
particular scene, The Mound, one of the most impressive scenes of
the whole play, required the twenty-five actors to pile up in an
apparently effortless manner and remain in that position for the entire duration of the scene, which
lasted more than eight minutes. Instructing the actors on how to perform such a difficult task seemed
hard enough, let alone through the language barrier. What Pepe wanted to achieve was similarity
between the bodies’ heap and a painting by Caravaggio, therefore I was particularly concerned about
accuracy in translating instructions, in order to obtain the final effect of a work of art. In the end the
result was breathtaking.
Since the play was going to be performed in Italian with English surtitles, they had to be
accurately prepared in order to be shown in concomitance with the recited words following both
rhythm and sense. This was a particularly hard task; although the Shakespearian verses were the
essence of the play, the Italian translation had its own poetry and rhythm, which were equally crucial
for the mise en scène. In addition, according to the director’s view, words represented only a minimalist
accompaniment to the scene, so the original text, while retaining its structure, had to be matched to the
tempo of the acting.
Working on the surtitles was one of the most interesting parts of the whole experience. Studying
translated theatre implies working on parallel texts, which present tangible differences easily
recognizable. On the contrary, surtitles are mainly an accompaniment to the acting and therefore must
be organized in such a way that, while they translate the text, they do not interfere with the acting. This
was particularly important in Delbono’s play, since words were essentially illustrating portrays
represented on scene. Once more, rhythm played a crucial role, insofar as Italian and English were to
be coordinated in order to achieve a perfect unison with the visual effect. Preparing surtitles, therefore,
required a great deal of accuracy on the one hand, and creativity on the other. Interestingly, in the text
there was a French nursery rhyme, which was recited during a cabaret-style scene, which had English
equivalent only to a certain extent, and yet had to be translated entirely as a children’s poem, with the
same tempo as the French one. Deborah spent, I suppose, the whole night thinking of it, and the
following day produced the most ingenious of the translations.
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Given the importance of precise timing in the projection of surtitles, Italian was an essential
requirement to ensure exact correspondence between text and words, therefore, I operated them. Such
activity proved again extremely useful, since I ended up knowing both transcripts so thoroughly that I
felt the text, rather than followed it. Furthermore, operating surtitles required a great deal of
concentration and co-ordination, both skills being relevant also in academic contexts, such as public
presentations. Once more, I took advantage of an excellent opportunity of public performance.
When we moved to the ‘Swan’, as it was called by the theatre people, a new experience began.
The peculiar four-winged structure of the stage, protruding into the stalls, makes it more magical, since
the actors are in close contact with the audience. Even on this occasion I benefited from my ubiquitous
position. As an observer, whenever I was with the director in the circle watching the Chorus scenes,
and as part of the troupe when I was on stage, translating instructions on a particular scene. Stage
perspective is definitely exciting. The glaring lights also give out very reassuring warmth. The smell of
wood together with the hollowness of the floor gives a floating sensation. Finally, being so close to the
audience facilitates emotional contact with it and makes the whole experience totally fulfilling.
On the day of the first performance there was a strange tension in the air. The Chorus was
preoccupied with perfecting the final movements. The actors were adjusting their positions on stage,
very different both in shape and size to the ones they were used to. My presence became less required
by the director and I was more involved in the technical aspect of the play, translating for the sound
operator when he was communicating with his English counterpart and for the stage manager, Nicky
Cox, when she needed to organize the tight schedule for the day. Also on my side, tension was building
up. In a few hours time I would have been called upon to make sure that the audience received the best
possible impression from the English translation, which had to be present but not intruding. All the
work to help put up the show had been done, but a lot of effort still was needed to make the
performance completely successful. Half an hour before the beginning of the show the stage was totally
empty: actors, technicians, stage manager, and production people had reached their positions. The
theatre was there to welcome the audience, which in fifteen minutes would have taken their seats ready
for the show to begin.
Another way to see theatre
If I were to define Pippo Delbono’s theatre, I would say it is a holistic experience, where body and soul
come together, the former being the expression of the latter and vice versa. Inspired by Oriental theatre,
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Pippo firmly believes that perfection is obtained through endless repetition of the same movement,
which has to become automatic in order to express any emotion. He says that any form of performing
art requires such level of technical perfection that it can become live and speak for itself. Only a
perfectly executed painting or piece of music can convey emotions, since the artist, who is not
preoccupied with technique, can fully express his or her feelings. The same happens to the actors who
rehearse over and over again: their bodies become the means of their souls exuding strength and
energy.
Although Pippo Delbono trained in Italy following mainstream theatre, he then moved to
Denmark, and joined the Farfa theatre group, directed by Nagel Rasmussen, actress of the Odin Teatret,
where he learnt Oriental techniques and philosophy; in 1987 he met Pina Bausch, who offered him to
take part in one of the plays performed by her group Wuppertaler Tanztheater. This new experience
infused a new soul into Pippo’s theatre, which became more and more experimental and innovative,
melding drama with dance and music. As a result, his acting lost the characteristics of traditional
theatre and became a fusion of music, dialogue and dance, a collage of dreamlike sequences, which
transmit strong emotions to the viewer.
This brief overview creates a picture of the Henry V performed in Stratford, since the
representation of the Shakespearian hero must be seen in the light of this new concept of theatre. The
play was premiered in 1993, at Teatro Ponchielli of Cremona, and is a collage of Shakespeare’s text,
music, dance and cabaret, jointly performed by professional actors and local people, who form the
Chorus. Delbono states: “I am not interested in reconstructing history”, and his theatre is exactly this, a
representation of emotions, of the struggle between power and humanity, between good and evil, and
the way this struggle is presented generates enormous interest in those who come across this company.
Indeed, although Henry V is the story of a king who conquered France with a small army of valorous
soldiers, the play performed in Stratford is the story of a man, who was blinded by the desire of power,
which brought destruction and despair rather than supremacy and satisfaction, in the same way as all
wars do, no matter when and where they are fought. In order to achieve such an artistic result, great
care was put into the creation of each individual scene, which had to have an inner strength rather than
depend on the words uttered by the actors. Indeed, the entire Chorus scenes were speechless, and relied
entirely on aesthetic representations.
As a translator, therefore, my main task was, in the first instance, to convey to the Chorus the
principles behind such theatre, and also to give instructions on how to achieve the expected result. That
is the challenge I faced: intralingual translation from thoughts to actions, and interlingual translation
from Italian into English. Since the latter could not be performed unless the philosophical principles
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were clear, that was the most exciting aspect of the whole experience: becoming the ‘voice’ of new
theatre, where the body becomes vehicle of ideas and aesthetics materialises on stage. Before
embarking on this experience I had done some research on theatre jargon so that I was equipped with
the most common expressions. Instead I was required to produce technical terms relating to Buddhism,
philosophy, music and history of theatre, which I recovered from my own experience in these fields as
an amateur actress and singer during my years at university, my general interest in philosophy and my
sons’ long term involvement in classical music. Rendering terms related to Buddhism was the most
challenging thing to do, especially because Italian has a rather complex structure, whereas English is so
much more direct. In addition, the young actors in the Chorus (some of them where only seventeen)
were clearly taken aback by this approach, and looked at me with imploring eyes to explain to them, as
clearly as possible, core concepts such as ‘the energy point’, which is located just below the abdomen
and reflects in the lower back as well.
Translating theatre: a different approach
Such a philosophical approach therefore, affected the play at different stages. During the preparation of
the show, insofar as each scene had to convey Delbono’s interpretation, so the instructions on how to
achieve a specific result were pregnant of theoretical meaning, which the actual translation could not
undermine. After the show, during an open discussion with the audience in a question-answer format,
the same approach became the core of the debate. For a second time my interpreting skills were
summoned upon to convey philosophical questions to the
director and return subsequent answers to the audience with
the same characteristics. Although I cannot deny the thrill of
the whole experience, I must admit it was far from what I
had expected in a theatrical environment, if one takes into
account that this question-time session happened on stage in
front of about two hundred people, all very keen to know in depth the director’s thought.
A different aspect of my work as a translator, involved presenting a short film Grido, directed
by Delbono and released in 2005, which was shown after one of the performances. On this occasion the
audience was more technical, including other actors and theatre experts. Although it was nearly
midnight and I had already been involved in the show, my adrenaline was summoned again and I
became once more Delbono’s ‘voice’, giving an insight into the background of this very powerful,
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autobiographical film, which described his first encounter with Bobò, a deaf and dumb, who had been
confined to a mental asylum for over twenty years, and subsequently became a member of the
company. The setting was in Naples (this city coming again as an omen on my path), portrayed in its
crudest and most touching aspects, with all its social contradictions, which make it the most loved and
at the same time the most despised of European cities. Also on this occasion I experienced what
professional translation means: keeping a detached, yet appreciative attitude, even when dealing with
poignant subjects. I was describing my own birth town, drawing attention to the absurdity of some
aspects on the one hand, and to the sheer beauty of it on the other, both sides being very dear to me,
and yet I had to do it with a proficient attitude, leaving aside any emotional involvement. Also this task
proved very fulfilling, since the audience was once again very responsive and interested in the event,
and positive tension was palpable throughout the projection of the film.
Translating Italian-style theatre
Italians are renowned for being resistant to rules and attached to their eating habits. Having lived in
England for more than two decades, I have developed a certain detachment from my own culture, and
this enables me to see what my compatriots simply cannot see. For example, I have learnt that queuing
saves time whereas jumping queues wastes time. Taking turn to speak avoids overlapping of voices and
facilitates communication, whereas speaking all at the same time creates havoc and generates
misunderstanding. Similarly, speaking in a low voice is a sign of respect for other people who may not
be interested in our conversation and would rather carry on with what they are doing without being
disturbed. Equally true is that, although what we eat and drink at home is the best in the world,
changing habits over a short period of time could be a pleasant experience. Nonetheless, if Italians
queued up, talked in a low voice and did not complain about food, they would certainly lose a lot of
their charm.
English audiences are well aware of rules and procedures as far as theatre performances go.
Therefore they tend to buy their tickets well in advance, book their drinks to enjoy them during the
interval, buy the programme to obtain information about the show, enter the theatre in an orderly way
and expect to see the show at the scheduled time. The last requirement is, unfortunately, something
Italian theatre is not acquainted with. Italian shows normally begin at least twenty minutes after the
scheduled starting time; therefore it is not a surprise if it starts half an hour late. Both actors and
audience rely on each other’s ‘genetic delay’, as someone defined it, and it is a mutual unspoken
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agreement that shows simply begin late. Punctuality was certainly an issue with Pippo Delbono, who
simply could not conform to this Anglo-Saxon rule. As a result, the audiences of the four performances
of Henry V, although somewhat puzzled, quietly tolerated a twenty minute ‘genetic delay’.
Another cross-cultural aspect of my work experience regarded coffee. On this particular
occasion, I must admit I felt very empathetic with the Italian company. Being born a Neapolitan, I am
very particular about my coffee, which is not simply a boost, but a real pleasure with invigorating
qualities. Therefore, when Pippo mentioned his crave for good Italian coffee, I promptly offered to
make real espresso on site. Indeed, from the following day, the ‘Swan’ could enjoy the real aroma of
authentic Neapolitan coffee prepared in the actors’ dressing rooms twice a day, using an electric burner
I kept for similar use at work, for the delight of the troupe. I do not know whether it was the coffee or
something else, but from that moment on I thought I had unquestionably something in common with
them.
Conclusions
Working as a translator offers a rare opportunity to become involved in two languages, and allows a
deeper understanding of the two cultures. Prof. Susan Bassnett, one of the most prominent English
translators and academics in Translation Studies, believes that translators must be seen as writers in
their own right insofar as they contribute to the cross-cultural exchange in the same way as authors do
(Bassnett, 2006 in The Translator as Writer, ed by S. Bassnett and P. Bush). A good translation is the
crucial means to operate a transfer from one culture to another and the translation becomes itself the
original medium inasmuch as it is a new oeuvre. What readers experience through a translation is
independent from the source text and speaks for itself. In this way, translators become writers
themselves, drawing the essence from the source text, whilst producing something innovative. In
theatre translation such creativity is even more evident as two cultures literally speak through the
translator. Indeed theatre is the most communicative form of art since it expresses itself through
dialogues, thus bringing source and target culture closer together.
My experience at the RSC not only confirmed such principles, but also made the whole
experience a great human achievement. I came very close to outstanding theatre which opened up new
horizons to me; I met passionate people, for whom theatre is a way of life, an instrument to explore the
fundamental nature of human beings and, at the same time, call the world and society into question. I
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feel very privileged to have taken part in the Complete Works Festival and to have shared the success
of this event with excellent actors and theatre staff.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Prof. Ann Caesar and Ms Susan Brock for introducing me to the Royal
Shakespeare Company, Deborah Shaw, Rachael Barber, Nicky Cox and all the RSC staff for giving me
useful insights and great support during my experience in Stratford. I would also like to thank all the
actors of Pippo Delbono’s company and of the Chorus, who demonstrated great appreciation of my
work. A special thank goes to Alessandra Griffoni, from the Compagnia Pippo Delbono’s production
team, who has become a good companion, and with whom I have shared memorable moments of an
unforgettable experience. And finally, my thanks go to Pippo Delbono for giving me the opportunity to
experience outstanding theatre and to whom I have very grateful.
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