THE FATHER's Christopher Hampton On Translating French Plays For Broadway

After making his Broadway debut in 1971 with translations for two Ibsen plays running in repertory, A DOLL'S HOUSE and HEDDA GABLER, which ran simultaneous with his own comedy, THE PHILANTHOPIST, Portuguese British playwright Christopher Hampton made his first really big splash in New York with 1987's LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES. He then won Tonys for the book and score of SUNSET BOULEVARD with collaborators Andrew Lloyd Webber and Don Black.

Since then, his Broadway presence has primarily been felt by his trio of translations of plays by France's Yasmina Reza, ART, LIFE (X) 3 and GOD OF CARNAGE.

With Florian Zeller's Moliere Award winning The Father, opening on Broadway tomorrow, he's once again assisting English-speakers in enjoying the work of a French playwright.

'I first saw the play in Paris in French, and it was just as powerful and devastating as can be," he tells TDF Stages. "I'd been interested in Florian for a while, and I thought this was the ideal play to bring over first because it's so powerful and so universal."

The Broadway production, presented by Manhattan Theatre Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, stars three-time Tony winner Frank Langella as an 80-year-old man whose mental capabilities are deteriorating to the point where nothing in his memory can be trusted.

Working with Zeller was a sharp change of pace from his previous experiences.

"Yasmina is very questioning and wants to discuss all sorts of decisions," says Hampton. "It was very different with Florian. I sent him the translation and he didn't make any changes or suggestions at all. But once we get to rehearsals and previews, he's very clear about what he feels is happening in front of him."

THE FATHER comes to Broadway after a successful West End engagement, which ran concurrently with West End productions of his translations of Zeller's THE MOTHER and TRUTH.

"But even more remarkably," says Hampton, "at the same time he had three different plays running in Paris!"

When The Father began rehearsals in New York, Hampton came in to do a little more tinkering.

"I like to do something that I started with Yasmina's plays, which is to arrive at the beginning of rehearsals and work with the actors to translate the play from English English into American English, but interestingly, this time there were a lot of suggestions I made where the actors preferred to stick to the English English."

Langella, for example, preferred to use "flat" instead of the American "apartment," and a particularly vivid British expression, repeated angrily by a character, was also kept as is.

Hampton is convinced that Broadway audiences will embrace Zeller the same way they welcomed Yasmina Reza when ART arrived in 1998.

"I think he's a considerable playwright, and I'm hoping this play will establish him in America as it has in England over the last 18 months."

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Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.