The Voyage of the Trojan Women: from Euripides to Sartre and from Sartre to Theatre Research Laboratory

Abstract

The closing words—“Farewell, Troy! Now the lifted oar waits for us: Ships of Greece, we come!”—of the chorus in Euripides’ The Trojan Women have strong connotations in the sense that the very word “journey” evokes. On the one hand, these words put the journey that The Trojan Women would undertake in the course of time on centre stage; and on the other, they draw attention to the relationship between Euripides’ text and the versions that derive from it. Glancing at these two aspects, moreover, one can establish a link between the act of translation and “interpreting” Euripides’ The Trojan Women both on “page” and on “stage”. Within this context, the reception of The Trojan Women becomes a vital issue; all the more so when it is taken into consideration from the respective perspectives that Theatre Studies and Translation Studies provide. In this particular framework, the present paper seeks out to scrutinise a (relatively) recent production of The Trojan Women by Theatre Research Laboratory in Turkey based on Jean Paul Sartre’s “adaptation” of the text. The fact that Theatre Research Laboratory based its interpretation on Sartre’s rewriting of Euripides’ text is intriguing in that it compels one to monitor the way that the company perceived the “tragic” on “page”, and made it reborn on “stage” by means of highlighting the Dionysian element/s intrinsic to the Euripidean dramaturgy. The paper, therefore, sets out to propose a discussion of the production with the purpose of revealing Theatre Research Laboratory’s staging approach which aims to expose the pathos into view through a performance style that actually translates the “tragic” into the dynamics of the twenty-first century.

Keywords

• Euripides, Sartre, Trojan Women, TAL, translation.

The Voyage of the Trojan Women: from Euripides to Sartre and from Sartre to Theatre Research Laboratory

Öz

Euripides’in Troyalı Kadınlar’ında koronun kapanış sözleri—“Elveda Troya! Kürekler çekilmeye hazır bizi bekliyor şimdi: Helen gemileri, biz geliyoruz!”—“yolculuk” kelimesi açısından önemli çağrışımlara sahiptir. Bu sözler bir taraftan Troyalı Kadınlar’ın zaman içerisinde çıkacakları yolculuğu merkeze taşırken, diğer yandan da Euripides’in metni ve bu eserden türeyen çeşitli versiyonlar arasındaki ilişkiye de dikkat çeker. Keza bu iki hususa odaklanarak, çeviri edimi ve Euripides’in Troyalı Kadınlar’ını hem “sayfa” hem de “sahne” üzerinde “yorumlama” eylemi arasında bir bağ kurmak da mümkündür. Bu bağlamda Troyalı Kadınlar’ın alımlanması fazlasıyla mühim bir mesele haline gelir; bilhassa konuya sırasıyla Tiyatro Araştırmaları ve Çeviribilim perspektiflerinden bakıldığında. Bu çerçeve özelinde mevcut makale, oyunun, Türkiye’de Tiyatro Araştırma Laboratuvarı’nın Jean Paul Sartre’ın “uyarlaması” üzerinden şekillendirdiği (nispeten) yakın tarihli prodüksiyonunun incelemesini sunmayı amaçlamaktadır. Tiyatro Araştırma Laboratuvarı’nın yorumunu Sartre’ın Euripides’in metnini yeniden yazımı üzerine inşa etmesi, topluluğun “sayfa” üzerinde “trajik” olanı hangi yollardan kavrayıp, bunu Euripides dramaturjisine içkin Dionizyak unsurları ön plana çıkararak “sahne” üzerinde nasıl yeniden hayata geçirdiğini elzem bir araştırma sorusu olarak ortaya koyulmasına imkân verdiği için merak uyandırıcıdır. Bu yüzden makale Tiyatro Araştırma Laboratuvarı’nın, pathosu gözler önüne seren bir performans üslubuyla “trajik” olanı yirmi birinci yüzyıl dinamiklerine çeviren sahneleme yaklaşımını ortaya çıkarma gayesiyle söz konusu prodüksiyonu tartışmaya açmayı hedeflemektedir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Euripides, Sartre, Troyalı Kadınlar, TAL, çeviri.

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