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« Le Ceilidh » aux States !

Publié le par Eric Bertrand

Restons américain encore aujourd’hui ! J’ai déjà évoqué dans ce blog une certaine Marina de Stamford (Connecticut). Elle est passionnée de Hugo et de choses celtiques et mon ouvrage consacré à l’Ecosse avait à ce point retenu son attention que je lui en avais adressé un exemplaire en fin d’année dernière. Voici le courrier que j’ai reçu d’elle récemment. (Specially for english speakers !) Pour les autres, disons que son idée est de traduire la pièce pour la monter à Greenwich
 
Well, what do you know?  I just got an e-mail from the Acting Company of
Greenwich.  The woman may want my expertise with staging (possibly!)  And
now I got this absolutely crazy idea in my head.  How about translating your
play into English and making it available to English-speaking audiences?  I
am sure that the Hibernian society in Stamford might be interested.  Does
that sound like a crazy idea?.........
I wanted to clarify Ceilidh, because some authors do not like having their
work changed, even for the purposes of promotion.  The gentleman I'm working
with right now - Granville Burgess - is an expert at americanizing European
classics.  The "Country Carol" that he's doing right now is just an American
adaptation of "Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens.  Personally, I think we
should try to reach American audiences without resorting to americanization.
 
But you know how it is with American audiences.  They don't see past the
tips of their noses
, and it's really hard to make them relate to foreign
cultures, even though America is such a multicultural society.  That's the
paradox.  Europeans know much more about American than Americans know about
Europe (or even their own country).  But that's a separate topic……
What frustrates me about modern Americans is that nearly everything needs to
be pre-chewed up for them.  God forbid, you should say something remotely
ambiguous that requires abstract thinking.  You will automatically get blank
stares and responses: "I don't understand it."  Even Granville Burgess, for
instance, the author of "Country Carol".  The reason why he wrote the
American version is because he was intimidated by the original Dickens
version.  What is so intimidating about Dickens?  It's not Kafka!  Granville
is a good man and a good musician, but his target audience is 3-year old
children, since he had written many songs for the internationally acclaimed
show "The Sesame Street".  His music is a bit primitive.  It sticks to your
head.  It's easy to memorize.  It's fine for young kids, but not for adults.
 
If I were to present Le Ceilidh to him, I'd have to chop it up quite a
bit,
and that would not be fair to your talent.  My plan is to find a
Scottish or pan-Celtic cultural organization and see if anyone would be
interested in doing the original version. 
I would absolutely hate to
butcher the plot and the language.
Scozia in America ?
 
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E
Tu as raison Dorian, Marina fait partie du cercle des gens passionnés qu'on aime bien !
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D
Alors non seulement elle a une idée géniale mais en plus ce doit être une personne géniale. Elle a tellement aimé ta pièce que la traduire lui semble presque une offense car elle a peur de devoir en modifier des extraits... seulement, ça se voit, elle en meurt d'envie ! Moi je trouve ça so cool !!!
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