Everyone needs a father – English translation by Barbara McGilvray of the play by Stefano Pirandello

Sydney based translator Barbara McGilvray has translated the comedy Un padre ci vuole by Italian author Stefano Pirandello. This is the first translation into English of this play, although translations exist in French, Greek, Bulgarian, Arabic and Spanish, and are being prepared in Polish and Czech.

The bilingual edition of McGilvray’s translation was launched at the Italian Cultural Institute in Sydney on October 19, and is available for free download from the Institute’s website. http://www.iicsydney.esteri.it/iic_sydney/it/gli_eventi/calendario/2017/10/lancio-della-traduzione-in-inglese.html

The comedy in three acts, Everyone needs a father, deals ironically with the father-son relationship. Stefano Pirandello was the eldest son of the Sicilian Nobel Prize winning author Luigi Pirandello, and collaborated with his father on the edition of Luigi’s literary works. But Stefano suffered what he termed his father’s “literary yoke”, and this play is a comedy based on the inversion of the father-son roles.

The edition is accompanied by an interesting and informative introductory essay by Sarah Zappulla Muscarà and Enzo Zappulla, which was translated by McGilvray together with Elena Carletti of Sydney University.

At the launch, Dr Antonia Rubino, Associate Professor at the Department of Italian Studies at Sydney University told us something of the author’s life and the play, and then Dr Giorgia Alù, senior lecturer at the same department, presented a critical essay on the work, referring briefly to the art of translation. It would have been interesting to hear from the translator, who unfortunately was unable to attend.

The book is published by Wai-te-ata Press, of the Victoria University of Wellington, NZ.