Adaptation and Sur/Subtitling for the Theatre. Macbettu as a Case in Point

This chapter concentrates on director Alessandro Serra’s (2020[2017]) Macbettu, which recasts Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth into the ancestral context of the Barbagian carnival and uses Sardinian as its vehicular language. First, the original English text, Agostino Lombardo’s Italian translation, actor Giovanni Carroni’s Sardinian text and its retranslation into Italian by Serra are compared, confirming the ephemeral nature of theatre adaptations, which are constantly being revised. Subsequently, I investigate the rendering of the Sardinian script into Italian and English sur/subtitles, which are broadcast in theatres and on television in Italy and abroad. This examination of the multiple layers of theatre translation aims to shed light on how performance-bound and medium-bound constraints may influence theatre translation. As for Macbettu, Serra’s Italian retranslation and sur/subtitles are sometimes consistent with Lombardo’s official translation, but they mostly seek to retain the specific traits of Sardinian orality in terms of vocabulary and grammar. Particular attention has also been devoted to the translation of Sardinian coarse language as a specific trait of Macbettu. Although technical constraints and a certain level of conscious or unconscious censorship may have influenced Serra’s rendering of Carroni’s text, the actors’ performance, the set design and the director’s skill seem to aptly compensate for this partial loss, as also demonstrated by the lasting success of this play.