Editor’s Note Volume 6, Issue 4 (Fall 2017) Temperatures are dropping here in North Carolina after an unusually warm autumn, signaling the time to publish the Fall 2017 issue of The Mercurian: A Theatrical Translation Review. The issue begins with Peter Wortsman’s translation of German Expressionist Ernst Toller’s Hinkemann. As Wortsman describes in his introduction,…
By Ernst Toller
Translated by Peter Worstman
There are certain merciless works of dramatic art that dispense with cultural niceties and strike the spectator/reader where it hurts most, leaving you staggering and gasping for air.
By August Strindbert
Translated by Wendy Weckwerth
Nearly one-third of Strindberg’s almost sixty dramas are historical plays, yet they are almost unknown among English-speaking theater scholars and artists, and they’ve rarely been produced outside of Sweden.
Written and translated by Miriam Yahil-Wax
Today, Arab women and their supporters demonstrate, speak, and act. Yet the change within Arab society is still to come. Until it does, the bloody practice continues.
Reviewed by Maria Mytilinaki Kennedy
The publication of a new collection of contemporary Greek plays in translation is a rare occasion worth celebrating. While ancient Greek plays account for a large number of published and performed translations in English, modern Greek theatre is largely unknown in the English-speaking world. The Oberon Anthology of Contemporary Greek Plays constitutes an important step in remedying this gap, as it brings together five plays written by acclaimed Greek playwrights between 1995 and 2016.
Reviewed by Paula Gordon
The compilation is an enjoyable read and a fascinating window into the culture and politics of Serbia over the past 80 years and three systems of rule (kingdom, socialist federal republic, and parliamentary republic). The editors chose socially conscious plays, most of which contain implicit, if not explicit, political commentary.
For the PDF of the current issue, please see the following link: The Mercurian 6.3 Spring 2017. All past issues can be found under Index.
Blossoming trees and flowers, along with the attendant pollen they bring to allergic eyes, noses, and throats, demonstrate that Spring has come to Chapel Hill. That also means that it is time for the Spring 2017 issue of The Mercurian.
By Enriqué Zumel
Translated by Christopher Kidder-Mostrom
Through that terrible crone’s interfering,
I move on from this place empty-handed.
From your hands we’d like to be hearing
Applause as the room you are clearing,
If pleased you “A Fiery Young Man” did.
By Federico García Lorca
Translated by Luigi Salerni
I don’t think it will occur to the other woman or the lady Secretary to come around here again when five years pass, but if they should come…
The Mercurian 