Global Strategies for Theatre Adaptation: Feminisms on Stage in the Translation of The Vagina Monologues

Abstract

The Vagina Monologues is a theater play premiered in 1996 that became an international breakthrough for the feminist movement on stage, as it explores the female sexuality and denounces the violence against women. The present study addresses the play’s translation and adaptation through a comparative analysis of the script in English versus two performances in Spanish, one staged in Spain and the other one in Mexico. This research aims to propose a categorization of global strategies of theatrical adaptation, based on the classification of the resources used in both adaptations to appeal to a specific regional audience. The analysis is based on various studies in the field of theater translation, mainly the work by the Spanish translation scholar Julio-César Santoyo, and is approached from a feminist perspective, based on theories by the Cuban researcher Yanetsy Pino Reina. This work aims at rethinking the translation work as a driving force of change in artistic spaces and social movements.