Publication or Performance ? Documenting the processes of translating two one - act Strindberg plays

Theatre is known for its collaborative practices. Literary translation, on the other hand, is reputed to be a solitary pursuit. So when four academic researchers teamed up to translate August Strindberg’s plays Simoom (1889) and The Bond (1892), producing single texts that would be both publishable and performable, their working procedures reflected the contrasting destinations of their product. This article documents the dynamic processes of an exercise applying collaborative techniques to literary translation, and then adapting those techniques further in recognition of the performability and speakability requirements for the actors presenting these translations. The project is noteworthy from the point of view of translation studies in its demonstration of the relevance of skopos theory (Vermeer 227-38) for practical approaches to translations influenced by their commission and aim. However, its principal interest for students of theatre translation lies in the adoption of quasi-theatrical collaborative techniques to create translated texts which, while intended primarily for pedagogical purposes, seek to incorporate staging and theatrical elements within a literary text for immediate performance.