Two days of Catalan theatre at Queen Mary
The conference ‘Catalan Theatre in English: Past, Present & Future’, including an evening of live plays in Catalan, took place on 12 and 13 September at Queen Mary University of London.
The conference ‘Catalan Theatre in English: Past, Present & Future’, including an evening of live plays in Catalan, took place on 12 and 13 September at Queen Mary University of London.
The conference ‘Catalan Theatre in English: Past, Present & Future’ took place on 12 and 13 September at Queen Mary University of London. Several academics, translators, directors and playwrights from England, Wales, Scotland, the United States, and Catalonia reflected on their work and experience and shared their perspectives on a wide range of topics related to Catalan theatre.
Marta Momblant, Cariad Astles, Aina Calpe, Queralt Riera, Margarida Araya, Tim Gutteridge, David George, Sharon Feldman, Astrid Hilne, and John London spoke about topics including the adaptation of Catalan plays for the English-speaking public, children’s theatre in Catalonia, feminist voices in contemporary Catalan drama, the challenges of translating the plays of Jordi Casanova, Guillem Clua, Albert Mestres, Roc Esquius, Josep M. Miró, and Sergi Belbel, and the different approaches to the theatrical language and theme in Rodolf Sirera’s and Belbel’s plays. Each presentation was followed by interesting discussions between the speakers and the attendants.
Furthermore, on the evening of the first day, we were able to enjoy an evening of theatre in Catalan at Queen Mary as part of the conference. Firstly, the UK-based Catalan actress Marina Cusí (Mad, Who? Theatre) performed her work Knock, Knock, Knock: a work in progress in Catalan with English captions. This show explored the power of subtitles and manipulation within monolingual communities through the story of two young antifascist activists living through the 2017 Catalan independence referendum. Afterwards, Crit Teatre treated us to a reworking of the Valencian classic Espill by Jaume Roig. This play was performed entirely in Catalan by Anna Marí and Daniel Tormo, and bilingual guides were available for the audience.
