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TRANSLATING SILENCE: CORRELATIONS BETWEEN BECKETT, CHEKHOV, AND HIRATA
are dissatisfied with their silent situation while Beckett demonstrates how
those figures in silence ultimately mirror the audiences who watch the play in
darkness, silently, at the theatre.
Hirata adapted the essence of Chekhov and Beckett by treating the themes
of solitude, stillness, and silence in The Three Sisters as well as by introducing
an android as the means of heightening the mechanical, empty, silent
atmosphere. Consequently, Beckett was influenced by Chekhov’s absurd
situations and in turn influenced Hirata, in terms of having actors relate with
new technology in the theatre.
These three dramatists gave special weight to silence to highlight the
distinction between verbal and non-verbal elements. It may well be said
that the dramatists enabled the characters to play a theatrical role similar
to that of the Benshi for silent movies discussed in the beginning of this
paper. Ultimately, Beckett wanted to present every scene in silence as if the
audience were watching a silent movie. It may well be that Beckett chose
silent techniques to demonstrate those motifs that had already been treated
by Chekhov by adding a few lines and gestures like a Benshi. In other words,
Beckett treated his plays as if they were silent movies accompanied by a
Benshi who physically explained the content of the works on the stage. Like
a Benshi, who mediates between the silent movie and the audience while
accompanied by orchestral music, the characters are able to observe their
situations from outside. This sense of being somewhere in between blurs the
boundaries between the stage and the audience. The characters are equipped
with extra space and silence which allows them to be conscious of their own
raison d'être. This strategy enables the characters to be more physical and
three-dimensional by removing the barriers between the stage and audience,
unreal and real, verbal and non-verbal, source language and target language,
and voice and voiceless.
CONCLUSION
Although on the surface the characters of Beckett, Chekhov and Hirata
seem to be mired in despair, there are simultaneously expectations and hope
implied on the stage. Silence becomes visible for the audience not through the
verbal lines but through pauses, gestures, facial expressions, paces, costumes,
lighting, and stage props. These non-verbal aspects are entirely supported
by the aesthetics of silence discussed in this chapter. At the same time, it
may still be difficult for readers of the three playwrights to comprehend the
nuance between verbal and non-verbal aspects from the two-dimensional
written text. However, once they witness the three-dimensional stage audio¬
visually, they are more able to grasp this hidden message. By treating silence
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