"Eleven and Twelve", or When Not To Translate

“Is it absolutely necessary to translate?”, sighs the Italian tutor in Samuel Beckett’s short story, “Dante and the Lobster”. Such weary frustration with the task of finding in a new idiom the language to express what has been perfectly said in the original, may strike a chord with audiences to “Eleven and Twelve”. For those who saw and were moved by Peter Brook’s masterful “Tierno Bokar” (2004), its English-language version appears a poor substitute.

“Tierno Bokar” was the adaptation by Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne of Malian writer Amadou Hampâté Bâ’s account of the life and teachings of his spiritual guide, Tierno Bokar (1875-1939), in a period in Malian history when colonial ambitions and religious doctrine clashed with devastating effects for believers. As the English title of Brook’s play underlines in red, the defining historical moment of Vie et enseignement de Tierno Bokar. Le sage de Bandiagara (Seuil, 1994) was the dispute between rival clans in the Sufi faith regarding the number of times a prayer should be recited. Taught to pray 12 times, Bokar is convinced through his search for spiritual truth to change sides, a decision that leads directly to his banishment and death. His life stood, for his pupil Hampâté Bâ, as it does for all readers of this illuminating autobiographical account, as an example of religious tolerance and the courage to uphold it in the face of ignorance and persecution.

Brook’s “Tierno Bokar” benefited enormously from the insight and energy of its West African cast, led by the great Burkinabe actor Sotigui Kouyaté who, as the descendent of Malian griots (oral historians), lent an aura of authenticity to the role of the sage Bokar, and the presence of three actresses as the formidable wives and mothers on whom African society rests. These crucial elements are lost in “Eleven and Twelve”, whose all-male, international cast fails to locate either the gravitas or the illumination of the original. “Tierno Bokar” was developed in French through workshops at Columbia University in New York City and exchanges with the African communities in Harlem. That cross-cultural dialogue which helped create the original would seem to be “translation” enough of Hampâté Bâ’s book and Bokar’s teachings. Why indeed was another, less satisfying exercise necessary?

“Eleven and Twelve”, to Dec. 19, Tues-Fri, 8:30 pm, Sat, 3:30/8:30 pm, Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, 37 bis boulevard de la Chapelle, 10e, Mº La Chapelle, 10€-26€, tel: 01.46.07.34.50.