THE INTERPRETERS
Written and directed by Nicola Gunn
New production 2022
Artistic team
Performing Artist NICOLA GUNN
Sound Artist JOEL STERN
Installation Artis CRITIAN STEFANESCU
Translators SEVERINE MAGOIS AND NABUKO AISO
Co-Producers
AsiaTopa Festival (Melbourne, Australia)
Bit Teatergarasjen (Bergen, Norway)
Carte Blanche (Bergen, Norway)
Le Grütli (Geneva, Switzerland)
Prospective 21/22/23 Tour Calendar
Meteor Festival, Singapore International Arts Festival, Dublin Theatre Festival,
Le Grütli, AsiaTopa Festival, Oslo International Theatre Festival...
More info about Nicola’s work here
The Interpreters is the working title of a new contemporary performance that sits somewhere between choreography, a theatrical play and sound art. It is an experiment with language, translation, language as sound, sound as equal in primacy to sight and image, conversation as phenomena, and listening as political space. This premiere iteration will be performed in French, English and Japanese, with the possibility that the languages may shift for future productions depending on the geographic location i which it is presented.
To be performed in multiple languages, this is a work about the act of interpretation and the dramaturgy of translation.
This work extends on an earlier study I facilitated at Alliance Française in Melbourne in 2016. I am persisting with some of the same questions to look at the politics of translatability and untranslatability and the ethics of interpretation: what is it to have someone designated to be your voice ? What does a translation do to the uniqueness of the original ? Can you translate uniqueness? Is originality under threat ? What gets translated? What does not ? Why ?
It will be a work for theatres; a conversation between three people who speak two different languages mediated by two interpreters through English.
Nicola Gunn
To be performed in multiple languages, this is a work about the act of interpretation and the dramaturgy of translation.
This work extends on an earlier study I facilitated at Alliance Française in Melbourne in 2016. I am persisting with some of the same questions to look at the politics of translatability and untranslatability and the ethics of interpretation: what is it to have someone designated to be your voice ? What does a translation do to the uniqueness of the original ? Can you translate uniqueness? Is originality under threat ? What gets translated? What does not ? Why ?
It will be a work for theatres; a conversation between three people who speak two different languages mediated by two interpreters through English.
Nicola Gunn
« The confrontation of language underlies many of the problems we face as huma beings. L’année dernière, par exemple, j’étais à Paris et je suis allée dans la boulangerie du coin. J’ai demandé un pain au chocolat, et la femme qui servait m’a regardée avec un air vide, comme si je lui parlais japonais. Alors que je voulais juste un pain au chocolat bon sang! Elle était de plus en plus énervée, car je continuais à dire pain au chocolat et pour elle, ce que je disais n’avait aucun sens. Elle continuait à me regarder en grimaçant d’impatience, en disant « hein? » même pas « je suis désolée je ne comprends pas ce que vous dites, pouvez-vous répéter s’il vous plait? » Mais « hein ? hein ? hein ? » hyper mal polie. Je me demandais bien ce que je pouvais dire de si différent à ses oreilles qu’elle ne comprenne pas ce que je voulais ? Même par approximation, par déduction. On était bien dans une boulangerie !! PAIN AU CHOCOLAT.»
After that, I never tried to speak French in Paris again.”
(Mispronunciation is a source of great anxiety for the autodidact.)”
Nicola Gunn
Ninon Diffusion
06 61 98 69 75
contact@ninondiffusion.fr
06 61 98 69 75
contact@ninondiffusion.fr
À savoir
Plus les hommes seront éclairés, plus ils seront libres.
Plus les hommes seront éclairés, plus ils seront libres.