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Articles

Volume 34, Number 1 (2013)

Constellation Translation: A Canadian Noh Play

Submitted
December 5, 2013
Published
2013-01-01

Abstract

Daphne Marlatt’s play, The Gull, explores the form and structure of traditional Japanese Noh theatre to expand the possibilities of translating Noh for a Canadian audience. Marlatt developed the play out of her 1974 collection of poems, Steveston, which touches on the experience of Japanese-Canadian residents of the fishing community of Steveston, BC, who were evacuated and interned during World War II. In 2006, under the direction of Heidi Specht, Pangaea Arts staged The Gull through collaboration among Japanese Noh master Akira Matsui, Noh professionals from Tokyo, and Canadian actors. This research demonstrates that the emphasis on maintaining traditional structures of Noh disrupted the potential for a well-balanced collaboration and in important ways othered the Canadian actors. At the same time, Marlatt’s script, the emotions it explored, and the aesthetic sophistication of the performance allowed for an expansive liminality of identity and location. This essay examines issues of formal and cultural translation for the stage and builds on the scholarship of Susan Bassnett and Jean-Michel Déprats. To the existing conceptions of translation as divided between acculturation and foreignization, this research proposes a constellation translation that enables the cultural locations of translator, actors, artists, and audiences to shape the production.