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IN THIS ISSUE:
A NOTE FROM PLAYWRIGHT DAVID IVES A DECADE OF IVES AT CSC AN INTERVIEW WITH SET DESIGNER ALEXANDER DODGE
When my agent
called and asked if I’d be interested in translating Corneille’s THE LIAR for the Shakespeare Theatre Company of Washington, I had never heard of the play. Nor had anyone else I knew. Not that I was all that up on French theater, though I had recently found myself wading into the tricky waters of translation. Using the remains of my college French and memories of a romantic month in Paris, I had somehow managed a translation of Feydeau’s A Flea In Her Ear and Yasmina Reza’s A Spanish Play to some success. My agent sent the play over and several hours later, with the help of a fat French dictionary, I found myself astonished. Exhilarated. Giddy. For, lying on the desk before me, was one of the world’s great comedies. I felt as if some lost Shakespeare festival comedy on the order of Much Ado had been found. Everything about it spoke to me. The rippling language. The simplicity of the premise alongside the intricate rigor of the plotting. The gorgeousness of the set pieces. Its wide understanding and humanity, seasoned with several pinches of social satire. The prospect of Englishing it made me feel like Ronald Colman sighting Shangri-La.
Corneille (that’s pronounced Cor-NAY, by the way) wrote Le Menteur in the middle of his career as a return to comedy, and the play shows all the ease of a playwright in complete control of his powers. He seems to be improvising this divertissement before our eyes, riffing on the Spanish play he stole the basic plot from (and which he vastly improved). Corneille was a generation before French classicism hardened into the severity of Racine, and he has the devilmay-care brio of the Baroque. His love of the world and of human life vibrates in every line. There was one thing that I knew right away: my version would have to be in verse, just as it is in Corneille. THE LIAR is a portrait of a brilliant performer walking a tightrope for the whole length of the action, and it needs language to match. Prose would turn this into a "Seinfeld" episode and make it banal. But translate the whole play, as is? Or make another play “based on” Corneille, like Tony Kushner’s version of Corneille’s The Illusion? Frankly there were plenty of unsatisfying or outmoded elements of the plot. Lucrece was a cipher, virtually non-speaking for most of the action; Cliton’s relationship to Dorante wasn’t clear; the two maids were thankless parts; and the wrap-up was too abrupt: Dorante realizes
he’s gotten his lady love’s name wrong and changes his mind, plopping for Lucrece and professing his love. Sorry. Not good enough. Samuel Johnson once said: “We must try its effect as an English poem; that is the way to judge the merit of a translation.” I submit that the same principle applies to plays, especially old ones. In fact, for my money only playwrights should translate plays because the point is not to carry over sentences from one language to another, but to produce a speakable, playable, produceable play for today no matter what’s in the original. “But that’s what Corneille wrote in 1643,” is no defense. If actors can’t play every line, if every moment isn’t comedic or dramatic or both – fuhgeddaboutit. More importantly, in translating a play one must think as a playwright, not as a translator, and ask: what is the action underneath the words, who are these characters, what drives them, and finally what is this play all about? What was on the original playwright’s chest and how can I use what’s on mine to create something with dramatic and comedic integrity?
"A good memory is needed once we have lied." -Pierre Corneille
In the end I did to THE LIAR exactly what Corneille had done to his Spanish source: I reworked it to my own ends. The result was what I call a translaptation, i.e., a translation with a heavy dose of adaptation. I trimmed some very long speeches and broke up others. I parcelled out the action between interiors and exteriors rather than setting most of the action – as “classical” writers implausibly do – in a street. I let Cliton meet Dorante in scene one and gave him a problem with the truth that would complement his boss’s. I cut a useless manservant and made the maids twins. Loving duels (who doesn’t?), I put the duel onstage which in the original happens offstage. I inserted a lying lesson – the equivalent of the specialty number at the top of virtually every musical’s second act – and rejiggered the ending. I gave Philiste a love interest, tying him into the plot more than he was, and along the way I fell in love with Lucrece. (Who wouldn’t?) So here it is. The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, as refracted in a theatrical fun-house mirror. Welcome to THE LIAR.
-Reprinted from David Ives' introduction to THE LIAR.
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From The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Photo by: Alexander Dodge
STAGE ARCHITECTURE An Interview with THE LIAR Set Designer Alexander Dodge Q: You were born in Switzerland, grew up in Arizona, and have designed all kinds of theater all over the world. How has your lifelong international journey shaped your identity as an artist? I was able to experience two very different cultures, not to mention climates and geography, very early on in life. When I was born, my family lived in a small alpine town in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, and then we moved to the hot desert around Scottsdale as I began elementary school. My father is an architect and studied with Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin West in Arizona. I grew up on the campus, which undeniably had a profound influence on me. As a young boy I initially wanted to be an architect like my father until I moved into theater and scenic design. Architecture in general has always had a great influence on me. I have always been interested in the volume of space and how
the characters inhabit and interact with it. I am very grateful that I have had the chance to see so many architectural styles in person and how different cultures have been able to incorporate those styles together and in close proximity over long time periods. I believe this has really helped me when trying to push the boundaries of a period piece. Knowing what works together and just how far is too far before a piece can become garish or clashing is a very good thing. Q: Classic Stage Company has a really distinct physical space. Can you tell us about some challenges and opportunities unique to this venue? Classic Stage Company is one of my very favorite theater spaces in New York. I have seen many fantastic productions at this theater over the years and am certain one of the many reasons they were so successful was the space itself. It has what so many others do not, and that is volume, and especially height. It feels very large and
intimate at the same time. That can be part of the challenge in this space - designing a piece that doesn’t feel too small within the space yet making sure it is intimate so the audience feels engaged and a part of the world we are presenting. I have been a fan of Classic Stage Company for a long time and am excited and honored to be able to get to design in it. Q: What was your starting place for THE LIAR? Can you walk us through some of your very first impulses with this play? I have had the good fortune to work on several David Ives productions over the years. While retaining the essence of the spirit of the piece and its period, he facilely brings the story into the contemporary world. It is clever and playful. Michael and I had done this play previously in Washington, but we realized that this version would have to take quite a different approach. The two theater spaces are very different in size and configuration. We knew that we wanted to be able to use many of the costume designs from before. While the current design is completely different, it retains much of the same color palette as before. However, I have run with the playful nature of the play and pushed the “pop art” quality of it. Q: What are some of the most common misconceptions audiences have about scenic design?
People often think that I actually construct the set. I don’t, and nor for the sake of the set, not to mention everyone’s safety, would you want me to. I explain that I am very much like an architect, but for the stage. We build a scale model, create painter’s elevations and technical drawings. From there the design goes to the scene shop and gets built. My role at that point becomes more supervisory, very much like an architect at a job site. Really the only difference is that the opening of a building can be much more easily postponed than the curtain going up on opening night. Q: Is there a certain writer, period, or style you’ve always wanted to design but have not yet had the opportunity to do so? What excites you about it? I have been fortunate enough to have been able to design in a myriad of periods and styles. In fact, keeping a constant variation of work going is what I find most stimulating. For me, it makes what I do most exciting. That said, what I do enjoy most is getting to push boundaries and create environments that are perhaps unexpected and often exaggerated in some way. Though the set needs to support the play itself, it is also a wonderful device to offer further insight in the telling of the story. As an audience member I always I love it when the scenery is more than just a background and not only enriches the overall experience but becomes integral to it.
From A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder. Photo by: Alexander Dodge
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Special thanks to the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust for supporting Classic Stage Company.
Marc Abrams Justin Blake Mary Corson D. Rebecca Davies Denise Dickens Raymond DiPrinzio Barbara Marks Debra Mayer Marla Schuster Nissan Maeve O’Connor Nicola Christine Port Gail F. Stone Thomas A. Teeple Roslyn Tom
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Paul Blackman Matthew J. Harrington Therese Steiner
BOARD OF DIRECTORS Lynn F. Angelson, CHAIR Edwin S. Maynard, VICE CHAIR Donald Francis Donovan, CHAIR EMERITUS
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR John Doyle CONSULTING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Brian Kulick MANAGING DIRECTOR Jeff Griffin
Anonymous ACE Charitable Foundation Actors' Equity Foundation The Angelson Family Foundation Arete Foundation AmazonSmile Foundation Axe-Houghton Foundation Barbara Bell Cumming Foundation The Bay and Paul Foundation Charles and Lucille King Family Foundation The Chervenak-Nunnallé Foundation Con Edison Debevoise & Plimpton, LLP The Don and Maggie Buchwald Foundation The Dorothy Loudon Foundation The Dorothy Strelsin Foundation Edelman Evercore Partners The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation Fred and Suzan Ehrman Foundation The Friars Foundation Gerard Family Foundation The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation Goldman, Sachs & Co The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Howard Gilman Foundation The Jerome Robbins Foundation Lucille Lortel Foundation Macy's/Bloomingdale's Matching Gift Fund Michael Tuch Foundation The Mnuchin Foundation National Endowment for the Arts New York City Department of Cultural Affairs New York State Council on the Arts The Newburgh Institute for the Arts & Ideas The PECO Foundation Pfizer Foundation Pirret Fund of the Bessemer National Gift Fund Richenthal Foundation Rosenthal Family Foundation The Scherman Foundation Shakespeare in American Communities The Shubert Foundation Stavros Niarchos Foundation Sullivan & Cromwell LLP The Ted and Mary Jo Shen Charitable Gift Trust Teeple Family Charitable Fund at the Greater Alliance Foundation Theatre Communications Group TheaterMania.com, Inc. The Thompson Family Foundation, Inc. Tony Randall Theatrical Fund Triangle Community Foundation Barbara and David Zalaznick Foundation
2O16 - 2O17 SEASON FUNDERS
Begins January 11 For tickets, visit classicstage.org or call 866-811-4111 CSC Subscribers call 212-677-4210 x 11
THE LIAR
CLASSIC STAGE COMPANY
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