Theatrical Translation and Film Adaptation by Zatlin Phyllis;

Author:Zatlin, Phyllis;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Bilingualism in International Schools
ISBN: 255735
Publisher: Channel View Publications
Published: 2011-09-12T16:00:00+00:00

Far removed from the Rivera and del Moral texts are plays specifically written for a bilingual audience. An excellent illustration is Dolores Prida’s Coser y cantar (first staged in 1981), ‘A One-Act Bilingual Fantasy for Two Women’. The Cuban-American author states in an important prefatory note: ‘This play is really one long monologue. The two women are one and are playing a verbal, emotional game of ping pong’. Prida strongly affirms that the ‘play must NEVER be performed in just one language’ (Prida, 1991: 49). According to Patricia González, Prida’s protagonist exemplifies what Gustavo Pérez-Firmat calls a cultural Siamese: ‘neither here nor there but simultaneously coexisting in both places’ (quoted in González, 2002: 84). González believes that Coser y cantar is the first play to reflect this hybrid reality and that ‘She/Ella, with her ordinary simplicity, schematic clichés, and cultural complexities, continues to be the best and most tangible theatrical example of life on the hyphen’ (2002: 84).

In essence, the roles in this two-actor play – ‘ELLA, una mujer’ and ‘SHE, the same woman’ (Prida, 1991: 49) – are not so much a divided self as the two complementary halves of the character. Each speaks in her language of preference, reflects the culture associated with that language, and, throughout most of the action, pretends that the other character does not exist. Sometimes a speech may provide a translation of the previous one or at least partially clarify its content in the other language:

SHE:

(SHE goes to her dressing table, sits down, takes pen and paper.) I’ll make a list of all the things I must do. Let’s see. I should start from the inside … Number one, clean the house …

ELLA:

(Still eating) Uno, limpiar la casa.

SHE:

Two, take the garbage out.

ELLA:

Dos, sacar la basura.

SHE:

Then, do outside things. After running, I have to do something about El Salvador.

ELLA:

Salvar a El Salvador. (Prida, 1991: 52)

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