Memory, Communism, and foreign words in Julia Holewińska’s Foreign Bodies: balancing foreignization and domesticating strategies in a production by Polish Theatre Ireland

This article engages with selected translation strategies undertaken to transfer a Polish play by Julia Holewińska, ‘Ciała Obce’ [Foreign Bodies], into the context of Irish theatre. I look at Polish Theatre Ireland’s production of the play (directed by Lianne O’Shea and presented in Dublin’s Project Arts Centre in 2013), focusing on linguistic and cultural aspects of the translation and, in particular, issues concerning the memories of communism in Poland. The analysis is framed by Lawrence Venuti’s theorisation of translation processes and explores the negotiations and tensions between ‘foreignisation’ and ‘domestication’ in the translating, staging, and presenting of ‘Foreign Bodies’ in Ireland. I propose that by using both strategies to transfer memories of communism in Poland to the Irish stage, the production can facilitate an intercultural discussion on gender in the Polish and Irish contexts and allow multicultural audiences different levels of engagement.