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Chapter 3 - Experiments in Surtitling

Performing Multilingual Translation Live and Onscreen in the Contemporary Theatres of Singapore, Taiwan and Berlin

from Part I - Translation as Medium and Method

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 August 2023

By
Alvin Eng Hui Lim
Edited by
Avishek Ganguly  and
Kélina Gotman
Avishek Ganguly
Affiliation:
Rhode Island School of Design
Kélina Gotman
Affiliation:
King's College London
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Summary

This chapter critically explores the implications of including: surtitles in live performance; a multilingual performance archive; and live streaming of a live performance. Drawing on the subjective experience of translation through a live forum theatre piece, Exit (2018) by Drama Box (Singapore), online video recordings of Macbeth (2007) by Tainaner Ensemble and Li Er Zai Ci (2001) by Contemporary Legend Theatre, and both a live staging and YouTube streaming of Beware of Pity (2017) by Complicite and Schaubühne Berlin, the chapter considers how audience members access language through both hearing and seeing them as surtitles. This extends to how textual display and spoken language can combine to determine the subjective experience of a multilingual performance. Hearing affects what one sees on stage, and vice versa, particularly in a context where translation plays an important role.

Keywords

surtitlesintermedial performancetheatre translationmultilingual performanceliveness
Type
Chapter
Information
Performance and Translation in a Global Age , pp. 64 - 86
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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