Translator’s role in cultural exchange: Salesman?? review

Salesman?? Jeremy Tiang & Danny Yeo Victoria Theatre May 15, 8pm A confrontation between mother and daughter ends with the daughter kneeling on the floor, rolling her head as the thunder crackles. Already, this reviewer groans, but apparently, so does 20th-century American playwright Arthur Miller. Invited to Beijing to direct his famous Death Of A Salesman (1949) in Mandarin in 1983, he bristles at the melodramatic and ponderous exaggerations of Chinese theatre, shouting at the actors to speed up their lines and appalled at their intention to don blonde wigs and paint their faces white. Singaporean translator Jeremy Tiang’s Obie…