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Edited and Published by Robert W. McDowell
October 16, 2025 Issue |
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A FREE Weekly E-mail Newsletter Covering Theater, Dance, Music, and Film in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill/Carrboro Area of North Carolina Since April 2001. |
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PART 3A: TRIANGLE THEATER REVIEW BY CYNDI WHISNANT |
The UNC Process Series' Translation Festival 2025
Presents Four Translated Works About Identity
The Process Series will present Translation Festival 2025 on Oct. 16-18 in UNC's Swain Hall Black Box Theater (photo by David Ruano)On Oct. 16-18, The Process Series: New Works in Development's Translation Festival 2025, presented in partnership with the UNC Dramatic Department of Art and The Mercurian (Adam Versényi, curator), turns the Swain Hall Black Box Theater into a crossroads of cultures. The festival offers four bold, translated works, which asked audiences to think deeply about identity, family, and community.
The festival opened with a theatrical reading of one of the great masterpieces of classical drama. Euripides' The Bacchae, written around 405 BCE, dramatizes the god Dionysus' return to Thebes to punish King Pentheus for denying his divinity. The play explores repression, liberation, gender boundaries, and the devastating consequences of failing to recognize truths that demand acknowledgment. The translation was faithful to the original, but included more contemporary slang, idiomatic expressions and, in some cases, a few swear words.
Dionysus was performed by Tia James, who captured the essence of the gender-bending nature of the god. Pentheus, the young ruler destroyed by Dionysus and the Bacchae, was performed by Matthew Donahue, whose strong voice and flashing eyes created much of the dynamic tension between the characters. Ray Dooley as Tiresias and Trevor Johnson as Cadmus brought the aged voices of wisdom, ignored by Pentheus to his peril. Agave, performed by Elisabeth Lewis Corley, brought the crashing consequences to the audience as she goes from triumph to misery as she learns that she has killed her own son. Trevele Morgan and Dawson Boudreaux brought the voices of messengers and led the Greek chorus.
Emma Pauly's translation reframed the tragedy as an exploration of queerness and identity. Dionysus' confrontation with a society that refuses to see him became a mirror of modern struggles for recognition. Pauly is a dramaturg, translator, and performer specializing in Greco-Roman tragedy.
Guiding this reading was Adam Versényi, long-time UNC professor, dramaturg, and curator of The Process Series. His work often bridges classical texts and contemporary issues, with a strong emphasis on international and experimental theater. In this piece, he emphasizes closeness and confrontation, amplifying both the ecstatic and destructive dimensions of Dionysus' power.
At the conclusion of the reading Thursday night, Emma Pauly was projected into the room for a dialogue with the audience and a time of Q&A. The Translation Series leaders expressed that they were looking at these new translations in the same way that any playwright would bring a new work to stage, which would be a concert reading with feedback. This interaction with the translator gave audience members an opportunity to hear directly about the playwright's thought process and translation choices.
TRANSLATION FESTIVAL 2025 (In Person at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 16-18), presented in partnership with the UNC Dramatic Department of Art and The Mercurian (Adam Versényi, curator) (The Process Series: New Works in Development in the Swain Hall Black Box Theater at UNC-Chapel Hill). PRESENTER: https://www.processseries.unc.edu/, https://linktr.ee/processseries, https://www.instagram.com/processseriesunc/, https://x.com/ProcessSeries, and https://www.youtube.com/@processseries4340/. 2025-26 SEASON (Rounding Home): https://www.processseries.unc.edu/. VENUE: https://music.unc.edu/venue/swain-hall-black-box-theater/ and https://unchistory.web.unc.edu/building-narratives/swain-hall/. DIRECTIONS: https://www.google.com/maps/. PARKING: https://maps.unc.edu/parking/swain-hall-parking-lot/. TICKETS: Admission is FREE, but advance registration is recommended. Click here to register. INFORMATION: 919-843-5666 or uncprocessseries@gmail.com. PLEASE DONATE TO: The Process Series.
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EDITOR'S NOTE: Cyndi Whisnant is a playwright living in Carrboro, NC. Cyndi graduated from UNC, with degrees in English Literature and Journalism. She is an entrepreneur who has started several businesses and a swing band. Cyndi has written and produced plays for local schools, churches, and community theater. She is a member of Creative Greensboro's Playwrights Forum and Chapel Hill Sips & Scripts. She is passionate about theater in general, but is particularly interested in creating and supporting opportunities for women's voices and experiences on stage. Click here to read Cyndi Whisnant's reviews for Triangle Review. |
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