March began with a two-day festival of LGBTQ+ theatre in translation, or from parts of the English-speaking world less often seen on the London stage, which I was part of the team on at the Arcola Theatre.  We presented seven plays from India, Kosovo, France, Taiwan, Argentina, and by writers of Jordanian and Egyptian origin, and held post-show discussions with writers, translators, directors, actors and invited guests, which I chaired.  It was wonderful to see this work showcased, and a particular thrill that so many of the writers and translators came to London to be with us, often from very long distances!  You can read a full account of the event on The Theatre Times here.

Interviewing (L to R) Paul Dillane, Tasmine Airey, Jeton Neziraj and Danish Sheikh at the Arcola, March 2018. Photo (c) Ali Wright

In late February I was at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) with the international theatre company

[Foreign Affairs] to run a workshop on the theme of translating Japanese theatre.  As a non-speaker of Japanese I was relieved to be co-presenting with playwright and translator Nozomi Abe, as well as the artistic directors of [Foreign Affairs] Trine Garrett and Camila França, as we discussed the controversial subject of ‘speakability’ and the process of [Foreign Affairs] innovative theatre translation programme, and finally explored with attendees and a helpful company of actors the various ways that we could translate extracts from a selection of contemporary Japanese plays.

Also this month I completed by translation of The Lady of the Andes, a fanstastic play in the typical black-comic style of Chilean playwright Bosco Israel Cayo Alvarez.  This play won the Chilean national literature award for playwriting in 2017.  In the play, the ageing volunteers of one of Chile’s most venerable charities, the Ladies in Red, gather at the house of their founder to care for her as she slips into dementia.  But as they do, some dark truths from the past, buried for decades, begin to emerge.

From the original Santiago production of The Lady of the Andes. Photo (c) Ricardo General

Finally for this month, Out of the Wings, the Ibero-American theatre collective I am a part of, is gearing up for its third annual festival of plays from the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world.  We will be announcing our programme of play readings soon, but this year’s festival will also include a series of practical workshops on translation and performance, as well as a one-day conference on the subject of theatre, translation and advocacy.  Full details of the call for participants in the conference can be found here.  We welcome proposals from anyone involved in international theatre or translation.