A Játék a kastélyban metamorfózisa
P. G. Wodehouse fordítása és Tom Stoppard átirata

P. G. Wodehouse’s Translation and Tom Stoppard’s Adaptation

Summary/Abstract: This paper compares Ferenc Molnár’s play Játék a kastélyban (1926) with two versions of the text, P. G. Wodehouse’s translation titled The Play’s the Thing (1926) and Tom Stoppard’s adaptation titled Rough Crossing (1984.) This analysis explores the differences in the play’s title, the variations in the characters’ names, the alterations present in Wodehouse’s translation and the ways in which Stoppard deconstructs Molnár’s play. The conclusion of the comparison is that in P. G. Wodehouse’s adaptation, Ferenc Molnár’s three-act anecdote remains unchanged in its dramaturgical structure, the translator’s changes chiefly concern the local specificities of staging the play in America. Tom Stoppard’s musical play should however be considered an adaptation, wherein the theatrical questions and challenges raised in the Molnár play are radically escalated.

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