Neuere Theatertexte Jelineks und ihr langer Weg auf die polnischen Bühnen. Anmerkungen zum Theatertransfer
Elfriede Jelinek’s “texts for the theater” are enjoying more and more interest in Poland, even though in the 90s and in the early 2000s the Polish theater was not interested in plays which went outside the classical idea of stageability. Many researchers stress the fact that the Polish and German theatrical practices are very different, while at the same time they notice how the German-speaking standards have gradually influenced the stage life in Poland. It was not until new translations by people connected to the theater started to appear, backed up by generational change and favorable politics of theater directors, that Elfride Jelinek’s plays started to become visible on the Polish theater landscape. Two stage productions from the 2007/2008 season illustrate this trend especially well: About Animals (Über Tiere), directed by Łukasz Chotkowski in Teatr Polski in Bydgoszcz, and A Sport Play (Ein Sportstück), directed by Krzysztof Garbaczewski in Opole (both texts translated by Karolina Bikont). This article calls for a systematic treatment of the theatrical transfer, which allows for the inclusion of many factors that influence the process.
More...