Translating Theatre Symposium: Kasia Lech (Canterbury Christ Church)

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• published: 20 Feb 2017
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Dr Kasia Lech's paper from the Translating Theatre Symposium (Europe House, London, 21st October 2016), entitled "Translating Conflict into ‘The Wedding’: Radosław Rychcik’s Staging of Stanisław Wyspiański’s ‘Wesele’ [The Wedding] as a Foreignized Translation" Abstract: This paper uses Lawrence Venuti theory of translation to investigate the value of foreignization strategies in theatrical translation, arguing for translation as a cultural rather than linguistic process which might be strengthened by intercultural revisions. It examines foreignization strategies as a way of rediscovering national drama and reframing national memory in the 2016 staging of Stanisław Wyspiański’s Wesele [The Wedding] directed by Radosław Rychcik for the Śląski Theatre in Katowice (Poland). The 1901 play, considered to be a Polish masterpiece, is set at the wedding of the city- born Groom and the village-born Bride. It deals with national conflict, memory, and the role of arts. Rychcik sets his heavily criticised production in the 1970s Belfast. The Groom and his family become loyalists, the Bride and her family are Catholic, Jewish Rachela is ‘translated’ into an IRA soldier, and even ‘Seamus Heaney’ appears. The performances are bilingual and, to some degree, attempt to reproduce the soundscape of Hiberno-English. Rychcik’s Wesele was criticised for lack of engagement with current political conflicts in Poland, unsuccessfully copying Rychcik’s previous works, and for his choice of Northern Irish conflict as not familiar enough to the audiences. I will, however, argue that this lack of familiarity is at the heart of Rychcik strategies to engage with the play, current political landscape of Poland, and memory of conflict in Silesia (where the Śląski Theatre is based). By looking at Rychcik’s staging of Wesele as a translation, I will analyse how he uses foreignization to mobilize the process of emotional distancing from the play that, paradoxically, facilitates a process of rediscovering Wesele and its themes and of ‘translating’ the story of national conflict into a story of reconciliation and re-united communities; in short, into a wedding. Biography: Kasia Lech is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Music and Performing Arts at Canterbury Christ Church University. Prior to her arrival at CCCU in 2013, Kasia worked as a guest Lecturer in Drama at University College Dublin in Ireland and as an Assistant Lecturer in Verse Speaking at the Ludwik Solski State Drama School in Wrocław in Poland. She holds a PhD from University College Dublin; her research on the function of verse structure in theatre was supported by the Irish Research Council. She has published on verse and verse drama in contemporary performance, Spanish, Polish, and Irish theatres, translation, theatre and animal rights, and puppetry. Her research interests also include actor training and performance of poetry; Kasia’s translation of Kate O’Shea’s poems has been published by Translation Ireland. Kasia trained as an actor and puppeteer at the Ludwik Solski State Drama School in Wrocław in Poland. She has performed in numerous productions in Poland and Ireland, including starring as the Grey Cat, a puppet that co-hosted the awarded live TV show for children CyberMysz on Polish national television. Kasia is a co-founder and the Artistic Liaison of Polish Theatre Ireland – a multicultural theatre company based in Dublin.’