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- Volume 12, Issue 1, 2019
Journal of Adaptation in Film & Performance - Volume 12, Issue 1-2, 2019
Volume 12, Issue 1-2, 2019
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Cruelty, tenderness and anger: Ensuring the Women of Trachis speak to our times
By Sophie BushAt a time when the vocality of women’s anger seems particularly pertinent, this article examines two contemporary adaptations of Sophocles’ Women of Trachis, both of which draw our attention to the abused and traditionally mute character of Iole. Timberlake Wertenbaker’s 1999 radio adaptation, Dianeira, illustrates dramatically the perils of keeping Iole silent, whilst Martin Crimp’s 2004 stage adaptation, Cruel and Tender, imagines the result of giving her a voice. This article considers how both plays resonate with the gendered and international conflicts of the contemporary world.
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A quiet subversion: Taiwanese opera tradaptation of the Biblical story of Joseph
By Ya-chun LiuThis article examines the tradaptation of the story of Joseph in the Bible into Taiwanese opera staged by the opera troupe Taiwan Gua-a-hi Ban since 2011. Set against the backdrop of the oppression of Taiwanese Opera in Taiwan’s authoritarian era, this case study argues for the subversive implications of such tradaptation. First, it seeks to challenge the victim image borne by the subaltern culture of Taiwan in history. Second, the local adaptors’ effort interestingly manoeuvers the symbolic power from the west, Christianity, to counteract the domination of concrete colonial powers within the continent in Taiwan’s history, i.e. Japan and China, through performing this Taiwanese opera with an intent to ‘empower’ the local Taiwanese community that was historically repressed. Third, the staging of this tradapted work that integrates Christian and non-Christian elements also loosens the religious frames set by mainstream Christian community in Taiwan. This case study, therefore, responds to the existing scholarly discussion on tradaptation through a contemporary Asian example that represents a dynamic negotiation between the dominators and the dominated, the past and the present, the traditional and the modern, and the local and the foreign.
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Martha Graham’s Letter to the World: A dance adaptation of Emily Dickinson
More LessLetter to the World is a choreography Martha Graham created in 1940 and revised in 1941. It is dedicated to Emily Dickinson, one of her favourite poets. However, it is not a biographical account, but an introspective work, that, in Graham’s words, investigates the New England poet’s ‘inner landscape’. The protagonist is split into two: the One Who Dances who performs the most demanding dance phrases and the One Who Speaks, who utters lines from Dickinson’s poems and letters. The other characters embody emanations of the poet’s personality. The main narrative rotates around the struggle between the One Who Dances and the Ancestress, who embodies the poet’s Puritan tradition and death. The combination of dances and spoken lines provides a unique portrait of the poet.
In this article, I intend to analyse Letter to the World as a dance adaptation of Emily Dickinson. The method through which I will conduct my analysis consists of cultural and dance history, adaptation and narrative theory. First, I will focus on the notion of dance adaptation itself; then, I will present a reconstruction of the piece and proceed to explore the material Graham consulted for her work; after this, I will analyse it in terms of narrative highlighting the way the dances and spoken lines contribute to shaping it; I will conclude with a reflection on the reasons that brought Graham to focus on Dickinson.
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Carl Caulfield: Hecuba Reimagined
More LessThis article analyses the play Hecuba Reimagined, written by Australian playwright Carl Caulfield and first performed in October 2016. Three previous twenty-first-century English versions of Euripides’ Hecuba are briefly discussed before Caulfield’s adaptation is examined. Caulfield’s modifications to, rejection of, abbreviation and amplification of parts of Euripides’ Hecuba are illustrated, and this section is followed by a detailed analysis of how he expresses the four main themes of his new play: a post-religious world, PTSD, the power of words and the rule of Law. There is a description of how the text was realized in the premiere production before a conclusion that evaluates the play, and summarizes the playwright's approach to adapting Hecuba.
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‘But not love [...]’: An interview with Loredana Scaramella about her translation, adaptation and direction of La bisbetica domata (The Taming of the Shrew) at the Silvano Toti Globe Theatre in Rome (2018)
More LessAt the heart of one of the historical parks of Rome, Villa Borghese, along one of its silent and shaded paths, a wooden replica of an Elizabethan playhouse rises up: the Silvano Toti Globe Theatre. Maddalena Pennacchia interviews Loredana Scaramella, theatre director, actress and translator-adaptor, who has been staging plays in this Shakespearean performance space since its inception in 2003. The interview is particularly dedicated to her acclaimed production of La bisbetica domata (The Taming of the Shrew) in 2018 which is set in the years immediately preceding the Second World War: a company of Italian actors of the avanspettacolo puts on a play at the inn where a Fascist officer is staying for the night with his squad; the aim is, apparently, that of playing a joke on a drunken tinker with anarchist sympathies who is taught a lesson on how to tame women. Music, dances and songs of the Thirties are added to Shakespeare’s translated text, inducing bursts of laughter mixed with tears, finally leaving the audience with deeper and sadder thoughts on the fragile human condition.
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The Secret Agent in the Netherlands: Interview with Izabela Pacholec
More Less2017 was declared ‘The Year of Joseph Conrad’ in Poland, and this led to various events in his honour across Europe. Among these events was the ‘Conrad Project’ in the Netherlands, which culminated in Izabela Pacholec’s radical adaptation of The Secret Agent. Robert Hampson gave a skype lecture at the start of the ‘Conrad Project’ which influenced the adaptation. Hampson here interviews Pacholec about the genesis of the adaptation; what attracted her to The Secret Agent; how The Secret Agent was seen to have contemporary relevance – including, in particular, its concern for ‘the emotional state of the masses’ in the context of Brexit; the historical issue of women’s dependence on men; how the adaptation transferred the novel’s sustained ironic commentary by an embodied narrator to the stage; casting restrictions (and the specific talents of individual performers) and their impact on the adaptation; gender issues, gender changes and pole-dancing.
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Editorial
Authors: Richard Hand and Katja Krebs
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