The old program called the seamstress a spinster, her neighbor a slattern, and a woman who worked at the docks a harlot. (spinster: unmarried woman, single woman; slattern: slovenly woman, untidy woman; harlot: prostitute, sex worker, woman in prostitution) These were loaded judgments. One reduced a woman to her marital status, another sneered at her appearance, and the third used a derogatory term for a prostitute. (derogatory: disparaging, belittling, deprecating) The translator wanted readers to recognize the speaker's prejudice without letting it pass for the theater's description.
The older critic had called the flautist effeminate. (effeminate: in this context feminine in manner, unmanly (dated stereotype)) His choice of words used femininity as an insult to a man. He had called the new director effete, exhausted and lacking vigor. (effete: enfeebled, depleted, ineffectual) Another critic wrote that altering the dialogue would emasculate the drama. (dialogue: conversation, discussion, exchange; emasculate: weaken, enfeeble, undermine) The translator read the lines aloud and asked what the writers were actually noticing in each performance. One wrote about a hesitant entrance. Another about a tired production. The concrete terms said much more.
She kept the dated insults where the characters uttered them and named the occupations in the cast list. After rehearsal the actor playing the seamstress asked for one further change. Her character owned the shop, too. The typesetter found room for both words.