Radically rethinking translation for the contemporary international stage, Jean Graham-Jones interrogates standard linguistic and cultural categories and proposes an overhaul of the translation process itself, incorporating dramaturgical logic and staging, actor training and performance styles, gesture and embodiment, and performance aesthetics and reception. She demonstrates how a theory of translationality – in which translations do not erase the original but rather stand in relation to it and to other texts and performances – encapsulates the collaborative process between contemporary translators and theatre artists. Presenting multiple experiential cases and drawing on Graham-Jones's own career as a translator, actor, director and scholar working in Argentina, the US, and the UK, this richly interdisciplinary work extends a traditional understanding of contemporary performance translation and its potential in theatrical practice.

‘This is a book that is imbued with intellectual and creative generosity, taking the reader on a journey through Graham-Jones’s practice that, as the title suggests, challenges ways of thinking about performance and translation, and proposes ways in which we enact translation knowledge and practice in different environments. … The book is full of inspiring instances of how to move beyond the textual in translation and is translational in its agile movement across disciplines and practice and its evidencing of the complexity, challenges and potential of the approach. The book is a fascinating and enlightening account of a life’s work as educator, academic, translator, performer, theatre spectator, all of which feed into the experiences from which the analysis arises.’

Catherine Boyle Source: The Mercurian