Editor’s Note
Welcome to the Spring 2023 issue of The Mercurian! We open the issue with Ieva Lākute’s translation of Latvian playwright Justīne Kļava’s play Ladies. With humor and pathos Ladies depicts the lives of three generations of women in the same family as they try to make sense of their lives in a decrepit district of Riga.…
Ladies
By Justīne Kļava Translated from Latvian by Ieva Lākute Volume 9, Issue 3 (Spring 2023) Translator’s Preface: Rooted in Justīne’s personal experiences, the one-act family drama Dāmas (Ladies) was first staged in April 2016 by Teātris TT. After a sold-out season, it went on to receive five nominations at the Latvian National Theatre Awards, including…
The Serfs
By Virgilio Piñera Translated from Cuban Spanish by Linda S. Howe Volumne 9, Issue 3 (Spring 2023) The author and context. Virgilio Piñera published the text of his play Los Siervos [The Serfs], a caustic attack on Stalinism and totalitarianism, in the Havana journal Ciclón in November 1955. He embraced the bleak irony of Adamov,…
The Treatment
By Pablo Remón Translated from Castilian Spanish by Sandra Kingery Volume 9, Issue 3 (Spring 2023) I recently had the immense pleasure of seeing my translation of Pablo Remón’s The Treatment performed by the Theatre Department at Lycoming College. Dr. Biliana Stoytcheva-Horissian directed the 8 students who played 25 characters: https://www.lycoming.edu/news/stories/2022/04/the-treatment.aspx. (The play can be…
Identified NN 12
Photo: Carolina Bustamante as NN; Gracia Morales as the Forensic Scientist By Gracia Morales Translated from Castilian Spanish by Phyllis Zatlin Volume 9, Issue 3 (Spring 2023) I met Gracia Morales in the fall of 2018 at the University of Southern Indiana during an international theatre conference organized by A. David Hitchcock. When I had…
Review of Writing Adaptations and Translations for the Stage: A Guide and Workbook for New and Experienced Writers
Jacqueline Goldfinger and Allison Horsley. Writing Adaptations and Translations for the Stage: A Guide and Workbook for New and Experienced Writers. London: Routledge, 2023. Reviewed by Lindsay Webster and Jane Barnette Jacqueline Goldfinger and Allison Horsley’s recent guide and workbook is a slim volume of 125 pages that intends to serve as a user-friendly “community…
Volume 9, Issue 2 (Fall 2022)
Editor’s Note
Volume 9, Issue 2 (Fall 2022) Welcome to the Fall 2022 issue of The Mercurian! The issue opens with John J. Hanlon’s translation of Artur Solomonov’s 2018 play How We Buried Josef Stalin. As Hanlon points out in his introduction, this funny, satiric piece prefigures many current events such as Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, various…
How We Buried Josef Stalin
Photo: Astakhova Aleksandra By Artur Solomonov Translated by John J. Hanlon Volume 9, Issue 2 (Fall 2022) Decades from now, no one will believe that Artur Solomonov wrote this astonishing play in December of 2018. A full year before Russia’s foreign agent law was expanded, requiring all individuals and organizations who receive any amount of…
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