EVERYMAN TEXT:

June 10^th

     The production of Everyman was definitely altered and arranged to fit this particular show. It was modernized and most of the text was adjusted to make it more understandable and flow better with the vision of the performance. I think that Carol Ann Duffy did a wonderful job with the translation. I read a book last semester called Why Translation Matters by Edith Grossman and she talks about how important translations for any kind of text is important because that is what influences the readers or in this case audience members. I was thinking of this book while I was thinking over the show because the form of translation to the original Everyman was executed really well. You could sense that everyone on the team understood where the new text was coming from and worked from there. The show really emphasized the visual aspect of today’s society and I wonder how much of that was written in the translation to portray certain things on the giant wall or if that was a director’s/set designer’s/media designer’s choice?

     I learned from this experience that a lot has to be put into making a translation but then also transforming it into a live production. A lot of questions come to my mind when thinking about all of this. I wonder if Carol Ann Duffy had any say about the production itself because she didn’t translate this script specifically for this production and I know that a lot of the creative ideas come from the playwright themselves. Why do a translation in this way? That question however could be for any show because it does come down to the director and designers of where they want the show to go, but still an interesting thing to think about. Overall I really enjoyed the show and thought it got the point across really well. There is no denying that everything was put into this show to really get into the audience’s face and make them think about their lives; like the original text set out to do.