Dramaturgical Dip: Lost in Translations

The plays of Anton Chekhov are translated and/or adapted into English more than any non-English playwright except perhaps Moliere and maybe Henrik Ibsen. The list of these translations and/or adaptations seems endless…I know because I have searched for months to find the right ones for The Classics Company.

Translation vs. Adaptation

Here is the difference between translation and adaptation. A translation is done by a Russian translator, steeped in both the language and the literature of Russia. It’s a separate literary artform to translate well. An adaptation is written by a playwright who uses a translator’s “literal translation” to put Chekhov’s story into their own style. Most Chekhov plays that have been published in America and England are playwright-centered and not translator-centered. The many famous playwrights who have published versions of Chekhov include Tom Stoppard, Michael Frayn, David Mamet, David Hare, Brian Friel, Annie Baker, Heidi Schreck, Sarah Ruhl, Richard Nelson, Emily Mann, Stephen Karam, Madeline George…you get the picture. They go alongside others who are more translator than playwright such as Paul Schmidt, Robert W. Corrigan, Curt Columbus and Libby Appel. 

Here is what our translator, Kristin Johnsen-Neshati, says about the difference: 

“With a playwright’s adaptation of Chekhov, the real draw is that playwright’s take on a classic—not the classic itself. The adapter’s trademark voice and dramaturgical sense become paramount. If the playwright cuts, rearranges, or elaborates on scenes, this is acceptable because the new work is “adapted from,” “inspired by,” or simply “after” Chekhov.

For an audience wanting to hear a Chekhov play, however, the important thing is immediate access to Chekhov’s voice and vision. They need to leave with the feeling of having encountered the work of the playwright himself. To this audience, the artistry of the translator is unimportant—and often undistinguishable from the author’s—as long as it doesn’t impede the artistry of the original. The Chekhov translator doesn’t cut, edit, rearrange or elaborate, but provides a seemingly hollow reed through which the music of the original may be heard.”

It's always seemed to me that when playwrights run dry of original stories, they turn to adapting Chekhov to sharpen their craft. I guess that’s a compliment to Anton, right? They don’t really believe that they are going to write an improved version, do they?

Which leads us to my asking Kristin if we could license her translations for our inaugural season. I found her name in a book of Chekhov critical essays by Rickard Gilman. He had used Kristin’s translation of The Seagull for his essay and loved her approach. I reached out to her, she sent all her translations, and I agreed with Gilman that her treatments were clear and unadorned. She told the story in a straight-ahead fashion without a personal style. She allows the actors and director to inhabit the Chekhovian world and make it their own. Now we won’t get “lost” in a translation. 

Below are excerpts from relevant remarks Kristin made when sitting on a panel of translators. I think you’ll agree with her perspective. Enjoy!

“Since language is on the move, translations have a limited shelf life. A good translator acknowledges this and strives to find the most immediate and accessible way to bring the original to today’s audiences. It’s the question of how best to do this that fuels continual debate. The translator should be attuned to today’s zeitgeist as expressed in the target as well as source languages. They must consider the tones and rhythms of contemporary speech and be able to find variations, such as verbal tics, regionalisms, and verbal patterns not identical—but equivalent—to those of the source text. Learning a new language makes you hear your mother tongue with the ears of a stranger. Only when I had to translate the Russian word chudnaya—an adjective that, in this context, means both miraculous and beautiful—did I realize how many English words I had taken for granted that combine exectly these meaning: wonderful and marvelous are just two examples. A translator must be able to think at times as a psychologist, an anthropologist, or sociologist to discover what a character is hiding or revealing by using one word and not another, why a character uses passive and not active voice, or speaks in short, germanic bursts instead of latinate abstractions. […]

Through the exercise of translation itself—the making of a thousand tiny decisions—each translator discovers an emerging “voice” for a new and distinct contribution to the field. I set out to create fresh and playable American translations that would make the rhythms and habits of 19th-century provincial Russia accessible to our audiences. I wanted my translations to mirror Chekhov’s economy, wit, and music.  I strove to make the imagery resonate and the language sing. But I didn’t know all that until I was nearly finished translating four of Chekhov’s plays.”

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Kristin Johnsen-Neshati is Senior Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs & International Programs for George Mason University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts. She is also Professor of Theater for Mason’s School of Theater, where she has taught translation and adaptation, dramatic criticism, theater history, dramatic literature, and dramaturgy since 1993. 

Kristin founded and co-directs 1,001 Plays, an international 10-minute play exchange for students, with Nicholas Kfoury Horner. She produces and co-moderates Kritikos, a reading group that examines American society, the arts, and anti-Black racism with curator and head moderator, Jessica Kallista from CVPA’s School of Art. 

As a professional dramaturg, she served on the staff of Theater of the First Amendment for 18 years, where she focused on new play development for professional and student playwrights. She has translated four of Chekhov’s plays, which have been produced at George Mason University, SUNY Stony Brook, University of Maryland, University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse, and Washington College. 

Grants and awards include Virginia Humanities, George Mason’s Anti-Racist and Inclusive Teaching Grant, LMDA’s 2022 Innovation Grant, George Mason’s Fenwick Fellowship, Fairfax County’s Strauss Fellowship, KC/ACTF Criticism Fellowship and a Fulbright research grant for work in Egypt. Research interests include international theater collaboration, and new play development and theater practice in Iran, Egypt and Sudan. Education: Swarthmore College (BA, Russian and Theater); Yale School of Drama (MFA, DFA, Dramaturgy & Dramatic Criticism). 

Kristin is delighted to be working with Artistic Director Mark Cuddy and his colleagues for the inaugural season of The Classics Company.