We recently connected with Georgina Van Weliwe and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Georgina, thanks for joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

Staging Shakespeare in a foreign language

I had a very British childhood and education. I was privileged to study Shakespeare at Cambridge University with some of the best scholars in the subject, and my first job after graduating was as assistant to the co-founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company. I spent a year in Shakespeare’s birthplace Stratford-Upon-Avon working at the Swan and the Royal Shakespeare Theatres as well as the Barbican in London, watching some of the world’s great actors such as Dame Judi Dench and Patrick Stewart bringing Shakespeare’s characters to life.

Despite this almost perfect apprenticeship, something was missing. I went in search of a different perspective on Shakespeare, to get under the skin of his work, and find my own interpretation. I went first to Paris and worked on a French production of King Lear at the Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe. But this left me with more questions than answers and I wondered if I had been wrong to look at Shakespeare through the mirror of translation. Some years later after founding Sabab Theatre with Kuwaiti director Sulayman Al Bassam, we received an invitation from the Royal Shakespeare Company to stage Richard III – in Arabic! Coming back to the familiarity of Stratford, but seeing the play in a radically different setting and in a language I did not master, the characters, the power struggles, and the writing paradoxically all came alive for me in a way they had not before. Working in another language heightens the senses and forces you to draw deep on your instincts, a different creative process than one derived from the more rational position of linguistic surety. I was able to free myself from the weight of my academic studies and a sometimes overwhelming British theatre tradition. The production was a great success and toured all around the world including BAM in New York and the Kennedy Center in Washington.

Now I am working on a new bilingual English/Arabic version of Troilus and Cressida. The risk and doubts of moving away from the familiarity, beauty and power of Shakespeare’s own language, remain. However, this particular project brings me to adaptation across both languages simultaneously, with the Arabic sections translated by the wonderful Iraqi poet Ghareeb Iskander. The first phase was at Columbia University’s Paris Global Center in February, with the next phase in the Spring. The most rewarding aspect of this latest production has been to stage Shakespeare from both sides at once: in his original language, and in the liberation that can be translation. Coming home and exploring new perspectives at the same time: the best of both worlds!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I come from a family that has long been involved in education. My ancestor Beatrice Webb founded the London School of Economics with the playwright George Bernard Shaw, proof if any were needed that theatre has a social role to play! I was a scholar at Cambridge University, I am on the board of a bilingual French/English school in London, and have been involved with a group of bilingual schools in the Arab region. A liberal arts education can sometimes be a weight, but its underlying principals should serve as a liberating force that allows you to continually question and challenge the status quo, be relentlessly curious and find the courage to go beyond your comfort zone on a daily basis.

This core is what I have drawn on in my professional life as a theatre director and producer. After starting my career at the Royal Shakespeare Company, I went on to tread an unconventional professional path. I created my own theatre company Inigo that premiered unknown European masterpieces in the UK, and post- 9/11 co-founded Sabab Theatre bringing together European and Arab artists to produce a trilogy of Shakespeare that toured all round the world from Tokyo to Boston.

I am now based in Paris and in the process of creating a new theatre company əmbrās (working title) to bring together artists whose background, situation or work is rooted in two cultures, and to make theatre that addresses prejudice and xenophobia on both sides. We need the theatre more than ever today as a healing place to bring together dissenting voices, to work together across borders, and to tell stories that reflect the mix in all of us and the societies in which we actually live. It is certainly rewarding, but it is not easy. In my opinion, the biggest danger working across languages and traditions is to end up with a diluted, generalised, overly simplified product that lacks identity by flattening out differences, or is a mess of too many references and signifiers. In order to avoid this trap of symbols and cultural hierarchies it is essential to start with the individual voices and give space to building trust and collaboration while allowing the development of ideas through workshopping each project through its various phases. The main focus of the new company is to produce theatre projects for international touring, but we also provide educational workshops to universities and commentary in the form of essays and journalism (see below link to my Markaz Review article). Key to our work is translation. A foreign language should never be a barrier but always a gateway to discovery.

My twenty-five years of experience working in different languages, with some of the most prestigious performing arts venues and festivals all over the world allows me to remain flexible in approach but passionate and uncompromising in content. Working with a small core, this new company will bring artists together as needed for each project. There is no one fits-all formula.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

COLLABORATION

I believe it is a myth that you can do it alone. Shakespeare himself re-wrote existing plays and had his favourite troupe of actors whom I am sure had something to say. Theatre is one of the ultimate creative collaborations and includes producers, directors, writers, translators, actors, dancers, singers, musicians, set, costume and lighting designers, composers and sound designers, technicians, and architects. It differs from film in that the final product evolves before your eyes, and changes with every performance. The audience are an important part of this collaboration as their participation can shift the performance itself with the atmosphere they bring to the space. I love the concept that in french to attend a theatre performance is to assister’à un spectacle.

Collaboration pushes you to better ideas and supports you when you are uncertain. It serves to remind you that you don’t, can’t and should not have all the answers.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Academia trains you to categorise and present analysis in a rational, well-constructed argument based on premises. While I agree with the principle of enquiry and research, I am less enthusiastic about the academic need for order when it comes to art. To make the jump from academia to creating theatre is a difficult one. First I had to let go of the need to work from a thesis and have everything in place before beginning the process. Of course it is important to have a vision and a reason for doing what we do in theatre, but it is in the process of doing that the work unfolds. If you are too tied to an idea then I believe the end product will lack freedom and passion and it will be difficult to touch your audience. It took me a long time, and a lot of bad work, before I came to understand the importance of this concept.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: georginavanwelie
• Other: https://themarkaz.org/arab-shakespeare/

Image Credits

Georgina Van Welie, Istanbul

Vardo-Eleusis Project
The Markaz Review
Christy El Khoury as Cressida in Troilus and Cressida
Raymond Hosni as Hector in Troilus and Cressida
Cast of The Speaker’s Progress, Sabab Theatre
Freddie Waxman rehearsal for Troilus and Cressida