How To Translate Body Language?
Isaiah Sheffer is in a bind.
The artistic director of New York’s Symphony Space and the host of National Public Radio’s “Selected Shorts,” Sheffer was asked by the National Yiddish Theatre-Folksbiene to direct a staged reading of Neil Simon’s “The Sunshine Boys” in Yiddish for a January 7 benefit. In and of itself, this shouldn’t pose a problem. He has a nimbly rendered script to work with, courtesy of translator Miriam Hoffman, and the roles once played by Walter Matthau and George Burns will be in the capable hands of Yiddish theater legends Fyvush Finkel and Theodore Bikel. The difficulty, Sheffer said, begins where the dialogue leaves off.
“It’s only a staged reading,” Sheffer told the Forward. “It’s not a full stage production. And the question is, what do we do with Neil Simon’s physical comedy? I concluded the only way to do this is to have someone read the stage directions. Then the question becomes, read the stage directions in what language?”
Some argued that they should be in English. Theatergoers may want to hear Yiddish, but they may not know it well enough to follow pure narration. Then again, Sheffer said, if the actors are “rattling off this good comic stuff in Yiddish,” an English intrusion could break the rhythm. And then there are the supertitles to worry about, which are no small matter, seeing as how in recent years the Folksbiene, out of deference to a growing audience from the former Soviet Union, has been running them not just in English but in Russian, as well.
“In the end, I figured we could make a final decision during rehearsals,” Sheffer said. “They’re two very funny guys, and it’s a funny script. I’m ready for anything.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.