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Most theatre scholars look at translation as an activity involved in moving from page to stage or from one language to another. This article analyzes the use of translation as a metaphor for approaching other cultures in plays that address primarily English-speaking audiences. Building upon contemporary translation theories, as well as Judith Butler's concept of cultural translation, the article compares the different translation strategies found in plays written in three different decades: Brian Friel's Translations (1980), David Edgar's Pentecost (1994), and Tony Kushner's Homebody/Kabul (2001). The author argues that the plays' political significance should be measured against the playwrights' approach to translation itself. Thus Friel's play seems the most conservative and Edgar's the most in tune with the liberal European politics of the time. Kushner's play, however, demonstrates a different understanding of the risks, limits, and possibilities of a postmodern translation practice, one that would substitute uncertainty for mastery in its approach to the Other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]