Truth in Translation

Truth in Translation tells the stories of young, untested interpreters who became the ‘voice’ of victim and perpetrator. They translated simultaneously in the first person, with no time for thought and no option to turn away. Everything flowed through them – lies and truths, forgiveness and rage, pain and celebration. They absorbed everything without having the time to process what they were hearing and speaking until it came back to them in dreams, in their relations with each other and in the haze of drink and dark humor that inevitably came after testimony.

Their mandate was to “not become involved.” Their attempt to follow this mandate is their story. This struggle to remain impervious to what they witness, to use whatever they can find to keep them from self-destruction, leads to the growing awareness that they are not that different from the people for whom they interpret. It is the story of what happens to people who cannot turn away, who are forced to see every side of each truth and lie, and in so doing, test their own identities to the limit. It is a story of what it feels like to bear witness without the option of denial, ultimately revealing that if we drop our masks, we will not die. We will become stronger.

Theatre journalist Lyn Gardner raved about the 2007 Edinburgh production in a Guardian review.

More information about the project is available here.