Adaptacja jako krwawe bagno. Tłumacząc spektakl 2008: Macbeth na angielski
Translating Shakespeare into English: Creating Surtitles for 2008: Macbeth

Summary/Abstract: The article presents the challenges of dramatic adaptation through a case study: the translation of English surtitles for a Polish production based on Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth. The play in question, 2008: Macbeth, was a highly stylized, bigbudget adaptation written and directed by Grzegorz Jarzyna. It is set in the modern day and contains text and scenes added by Jarzyna to comment on contemporary politics and military culture. The Polish he uses and that found in Barańczak’s translation that served as the source text for 2008: Macbeth feel more contemporary than Elizabethan English; therefore, the material written by Jarzyna is much closer to Barańczak’s “original” text than to Shakespeare’s. An additional challenge in writing the surtitles was the canonical status of Shakespeare’s Macbeth and the audiences’ familiarity with this text. A translation focused on conveying Jarzyna’s artistic messages could thus alienate viewers who approach 2008: Macbeth as a foreign-language reworking of Shakespeare, rather than an original work. Applying common theoretical concepts, such as adaptation/translation, source/target, and textual/performative, the article examines the process and strategies employed in producing the English supertitles for 2008: Macbeth and the play’s reception in the U.S. and U.K.

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