The Reception of Anglophone Plays in 20th Century Vienna

With the help of various cultural studies approaches and methods, this interdisciplinary research project will explore processes of cultural transfer and the reception of anglophone plays on Vienna`s stages of the 20th century from different angles. The perspective of reception history will be extended and complemented by appropriate methods and approaches to investigate the relationships between the cultures involved: the project will focus on questions relating to cultures in contact and cultural transfer, to circulation and blockage of (foreign) cultural elements, to play selection and censorship, to the role of national stereotypes within the reception process, and to translation and adaptation. Further focal points will be the historical role of individual theatres and theatre directors, agents, cultural officers, and other important figures in Vienna`s theatre scene. The period chosen, the 20th century, will allow us to examine these transfer processes with regard to consecutive historical periods (the last years of the Habsburg monarchy 1900-1918, the First Austrian Republic 1918-1938, the time of the `Anschluß`, i.e., Austria`s incorporation into the Third Reich 1938-1945, the time of occupation 1945- 1955, and finally the time of the Second Austrian Republic - 1955 up to the present), and describe and compare phenomena of transfer processes in different political and economic contexts. The inclusion of British and American plays extends the repertoire and leads to the investigation of three cultures which are in simultaneous contact with each other. The consideration of classics - Shakespeare as well as modern British and American classics such as Beckett, Pinter, Miller, Williams, or Albee - will allow investigations of how a classic is made, which metamorphoses a classic undergoes under the influence of changing political, economic, and social factors, and how even the process of canonization may serve the purpose of blockage. All in all, we will analyse the phenomenon of the transference of plays from their source culture into a foreign target culture and attempts at - or resistance against - their `naturalization`. The transfer of the originally anglophone play constitutes a form of cultural contact or intercultural exchange between Austria and Terranglia, the changing quality of which is to be explored in the context of individual historical periods. A number of hypotheses regarding the interculturality of drama and the role of foreign cultures in constructions of national identities will be put to a practical-analytical test. The project undertakes to examine, reconsider and, eventually, adapt and refine such hypotheses. In our context, this implies an investigation of the effects and repercussions of an increased contact with anglophone plays in terms of Austrian cultural as well as national identity in the twentieth century, a century of conflicts and crises. Ultimately, by investigating the transfer and reception of anglophone plays, the project will make an important contribution to the analysis of the processes of cultural transfer and to the history of Viennese theatre and culture.

Vienna is one of the most important theatre capitals in the world and can boast of a particularly diverse and lively theatre scene. Vienna`s openness towards other cultures is the result of its geographical position and its varied history, influences that are of significance even today. Vienna is not only looking towards its neighbouring states in the East but also towards central Europe and the Western world in general. As English developed into a global lingua franca, it should not come as a surprise that the transfer and reception of originally Anglophone plays constitute an important contribution to the Viennese theatre scene. In the course of the 20th century more than 1.500 British, Irish and North American plays found their way onto Viennese stages in the shape of translations, adaptations or even in the original language. The Weltbühne Wien/World Stage Vienna-project set itself the task to examine the reception of Anglophone plays on Viennese stages and the manner in which they deal with the `Other` in various historical periods of the 20th century. For the first time the theory of cultural transfer is applied to the investigation of the reception of foreign-language plays in a Viennese context. The `transplantation` of a foreign-language play from its source culture into the Austrian target culture turns out to be a complex process in which various acts of translation and transferral have to interlock seamlessly for the transfer-process to be successful: the choice of the play to be transferred, the translation of the foreign text by the translator, the production of the play by the director, the realization of his/her ideas by the actors, the reception by the audience and the theatre critics. At each of these stages the process of transferral and translation may fail - as we are able to show in our case studies. One of the most surprising results of the project is that the choice of a particular play for the Viennese stages in the 20th century (or its exclusion) is determined only very rarely by qualitative criteria. Various other determinants seem to be more influential: diligent agents, who manage to successfully `sell` a play; political censorship that blocks the production of plays; spectacular commercial successes in other countries that invite imitation; the differing production practices of particular Viennese theatres; the predilection of Viennese audiences; the prejudices of Viennese theatre critics. It is therefore not surprising that the list of Anglophone plays performed in Vienna reveals large gaps and that various dramatists that dominated the British or North American stages in the 20th century were hardly noticed in Vienna or were completely ignored. On the other hand, there are a number of `evergreens` (for example Shakespeare but also Wilde and Shaw) that have become audience favourites and that have found a permanent home on the Viennese stage. A play is usually successful if it finds `docking stations` in the Viennese theatrical landscape, i.e. conforms to the tastes of audiences and critics. In this case the `Other` is experienced as `one`s own`, the play is more or less `cannibalised`.