APPROPRIATE // Josefin Fischer, Holger Kunkel, Anja Schweitzer, Charlotte Will, Antonis Antoniadis, Marieke Kregel // Photo: Rainer Muranyi
German Language faculty member Dr.
Christine Richter-Nilsson is the translator of the German premiere of
Appropriate, a play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, which received productions at the
ETA Hoffmann Theater Bamberg and
Theater Freiburg this year. When the debut production of
Appropriate premiered Off-Broadway in 2014 at Signature Theatre,
The New York Times described it as “piercingly clear, with carefully drawn quarrelsome characters who speak in crisp and fluid dialogue, who are both unlovable and impossible not to identify as remarkable and devious.” In her translation of
Appropriate, Richter-Nilsson has helped the play gain traction in Germany, and has given European audiences access to its complex and nuanced message. “With
Appropriate, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins not only wrote a great family drama, but also a play about the reproduction of racialization and racism through bourgeois structure,”
writes Richter-Nilsson. An accomplished translator and dramaturg, Richter-Nilsson’s translation expresses the “generational conflicts and the big emotional escalation” of the work.
Richter-Nilsson is a longtime collaborator of Jacobs-Jenkins, having translated his
Gloria which premiered in German at the Munich Residenztheater in the spring of 2017. "I have a long history with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins," writes Richter-Nilsson. "It has been a very rewarding project that has resulted in many productive and lasting working relationships and friendships."
For a glimpse of Richter-Nilsson’s translation of
Appropriate, view the production promo videos on
ETA Hoffmann Theater Bamberg and
Theater Freiburg’s websites.
Post Date: 07-19-2023