Telling Theatre Play Otherwise: Na'im al-Shayatin Versus Tartuffe

Abstract

The addition/removal combination, related to translation, observed in the process of recreation constitutes the means of attenuation of the cultural, environmental and temporal differences between the audiences of the two plays. I propose to examine the process of adaptation and/or rewriting of the play (Na'im al-Shayatin), inspired by Tartuffe through the function of the translator as author. Given the highly evocative dimension of language, through the emanation of waves of expression of innuendo, new equations are observable for obtaining the meanings suggested in the target language and culture. Undoubtedly, an original way to reapprehend the latter. I raise questions about how the director works for re-creation in a different artistic environment using translation as a process. Due to the disparity in the audiences' environments and cultures of the two plays, the director resorted to adaptation and rewriting by combining addition and deletion. He negociated as a mediator to adapt the original work to the new audience and communicate the main ideas of the original play, which are hypocrisy and deceit through religious falsity, woman and marriage issues and family conflicts. To do so, he made changes to the playwriting in order to free the theatrical performance from its original terms. Indeed, Tartuffe is historically known as "The Impostor" or "The Hypocrite". The audience is aware of the latter’s blatant dishonesty. It is also ware that he is a clever and skilled hypocrite rather than a naive or illiterate fake. These ideas were reproduced as main themes in the Algerian play Na'im al-Shayatin. I analysed them in this paper using the Freytag pyramid through exposition, rising action, climax and denouement. Rewriting incorporates different levels and varieties of creativity in translation when removing boundaries between the source and target works. This process compeles the marriage of two extremely different environements into one mold. Eventhough worldwide communities represent many points of cultural disparity, they sometimes gather around some common socio-cultural traits and it is upon this very point that the researcher would shed focus in the current paper. In such contexts, the author can play a double-layered function that fluactautes between creating and translating. The latter is not an automatic literal process especially in literary domains where psychological factors like feelings and emotions are highly demanded. The factor of the human being in such contexts is not inveitable; literary translation is mainly a human endeavour. Consequently, the re-appearance of the same character in transcultural literature should not be considered a peculiar incidence. Instead of looking at literary works as unique and matcheless, one should reconsider this state of affairs to have the most of the teansuclutral literary experience. In Na'im al-Shayatin, the director, who was stuck between two extremes, was given the function of a secondary concept "recycler", propelling him toward a forthcoming narrative that is nothing less than the creative incarnation of his translation. On the one hand, he faces the challenge of staying authentic to the original play's vivacity, wit, and attractiveness. On the other hand, he is confronted by the difficult task of expressing the content autonomously in a hidden challenge of separating the act of translating from the creative process. Through this, Belkholdja re- tartuffed the original play by giving it a fresh perspective.