Translating Vanishing in Kristian Smeds’ Texts for the Stage

Abstract

This paper proposes to explore the phenomena of vanishing and invisibility related to theatre translation. After a brief introduction on the paradox of invisibly successful translation and the theatrical convention closely associated with it, I go on to study the changing attitude towards text in performance in contemporary Finnish theatre, as well as its implications for the translator. I will follow the gradual vanishing of textuality in performances created by Kristian Smeds, one of Finland’s best-known and critically acclaimed contemporary theatrical auteurs. The different types of stage texts employed in his performances may be seen as a gradual vanishing of verbal articulation, that is, of plainly translatable texts. This vanishing textuality calls for a changing attitude on the part of the translator, too. In my conclusions, I will try to reflect on this problematic of metamorphosing theatre translation, and to rethink translation as cultural mediation and documentation of the vanishing translatable.