Welcome to the Fall 2025 issue of The Mercurian!

We begin with Henning Bochert’s translation of Özlem Özgül Dündar’s play body without borders.  The translation has its genesis in a collaboration between Jospeh Megel, Artistic Director of UNC’s the Process Series, and Bochert that began with Theatrical Translation as Creative Process: A Conference Festival here at UNC-Chapel Hill in 2019.  In 2022 they co-taught a course on U.S. drama at Humboldt University in Berlin, while simultaneously working with Dündar as she wrote the play.  The translation was first performed in 2023 by the Process Series with Megel as director.   As Bochert discusses in his introduction to the translation, Dündar’s play deals with the history of violence perpetrated against foreign workers from Southern European countries in Germany from the 1950s to the present day.  The play’s highly poetic text presents particular challenges for English translation and performance. Bochert’s translation of Bernard Studlar’s iPlay appeared in Vol. 5, No. 3 (Spring 2015), and his translation of Martin Heckmanns’ A Man Walks Into the World appeared in Vol. 3, No. 4 (Fall 2011).

body without borders is followed by Silent Days, Sleepless Nights written and translated by Carmen Pellegrinelli.  The play takes place in Bergamo, Italy, a city devastated by the worldwide pandemic in 2020.  Pellegrinelli led a theatre workshop with doctors and nurses from the emergency department of Bergamo’s largest hospital who were traumatized by the events of 2020.  Based on testimonies and improvisations from the workshop Silent Days, Sleepless Nights, while located in a particular time and place speaks to all of us who experienced the pandemic and continue to deal with its repercussions today.

The issue concludes with several book reviews, including Daniel Smith’s review of The Inheritor: A Play by Théâtre de l’Aquarium, translated by Kate Bredeson and Thalia Wolff;  Kathleen Jeffs’ review of The Entremés for Performance: Translations of One-Act Plays from Golden Age Spain, ed. Kerry K. Wilks and Ian M. Borden;  Sophie Siegel-Warren’s review of The Plays of Aristide Tarnagda: Contemporary Francophone Theatre From Burkina Faso, edited and translated by Heather Jeanne Denyer and Anna G.R. Miller; and, finally, Catherine Boyle’s review of Jean Graham-Jones’ Contemporary Performance Translation. Challenges and Opportunities for the Global Stage.  Smith’s translation of Mariveaux’ s Love in Disguise appeared Vol. 4, No. 1 (Spring 2012) and Graham-Jones’ translation of Ricardo Monti’s Apocalypse Tomorrow appeared in Vol. 2, No. 1 (Summer 2008).

Back issues of The Mercurian can be found at under the “Archives” tab on our website: https://the-mercurian.com/.  As the theatre is nothing without its audience, The Mercurian welcomes your comments, questions, complaints, and critiques. Deadline for submissions for consideration for Volume 11, No. 1 Spring 2026 will be February 15, 2026.

—Adam Versényi