Ted Hughes' translation is piercing. Douglas Langworthy's translation is quite good; sadly, though, it's never been published.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
Bentley! That's the one I read and the information in the Intro. is great as well.
"In theater, the process of it is the experience. Everyone goes through the process, and everyone has the experience together. It doesn't last - only in people's memories and in their hearts. That's the beauty and sadness of it. But that's life - beauty and the sadness. And that is why theater is life." - Sherie Rene Scott
I've performed the Ted Hughes translation. I haven't read the Bentley version, but I've compared some passages and I think Hughes's works better. The way he uses the language is beautiful.
I directed the play and used a translation by Edward Bond. Before picking this translation, I read the one by Eric Bentley which was so-so and one by Tom Osborn which was performed at the Royal Court in 1963. I liked the Osborn, but the rights were not available. I don't know anything about Frazen's translation. I read somewhere he hates the musical.
Any Bentley translation is of historical interest, but there are better translations. I'm familiar with Douglas Langworthy's translation of The Good Person of Szechuan which is better than Bentley's translation.
Back to SA, Bentley mistranslates the title as Spring's Awakening. The season isn't awakening. As for casting, I had some of the actors who played schoolboys double as boys in the reformatory.
"Would anyone recommend reading the play before seeing the musical?? or is it better to experience it fresh??"
I would see the show first that way nothing is spoiled for you. Then go back and read the play to help clarify any scenes, but remember, there are differences.
"We like to snark around here. Sometimes we actually talk about theater...but we try not to let that get in our way." - dramamama611