Proud Son

By Shu Matsui
Translated by Kyoko Yosida and Andy Bragen

Proud Son is about a young man who has chosen to isolate himself from the world, a familiar phenomenon in contemporary Japan known as hikikomori.

Blood Match

By Oliver Mayer
Adaptation of Federico García Lorcas Bodas de sangre

The Groom is unknowingly doing the dirty work yet again for the conglomerate, thinking that he is satisfying his blood lust and honor when he is actually doing business for the cartel.

Dust (Dialogue Between Man and Woman)

By Saverio La Ruina
Translated by Thomas Haskell Simpson

I don’t understand, we had such a nice evening, you seemed happy… What’s the matter?

Pork Kidneys to Soothe Despair

By Alejandro Ricaño
Translated by Daniel Jáquez

Ricaño belongs to the generation of writers – not only in Mexico but in all of Latin America – considered to be the cohort that brought the word back to the center of the drama on the stage. These are theatre makers who write, direct and act in their own creations.

Editor’s Note 5.3

We begin this issue with Daniel Smith and Valentina Denzel’s adaptation and translation of the eighteenth century Italian playwright Carlo Gozzi’s The Serpent Lady.

The Serpent Lady

By Carlo Gozzi
Translated by Daniel Smith and Valentina Denzel

The Serpent Lady tells the story of Cherestani, the Fairy Queen, and her mortal husband Farruscad. They must overcome numerous magical obstacles in order to be together.

iPlay

By Bernhard Studlar
Translated by Henning Bochert

One hundred ‘apps’ (like the numbers in Greenaway’s film) throughout the play lead from nowhere to nowhere (but not to anyone being drowned), there are no characters doing anything, and no meaning coagulates around any plot. Even the narrator disappears, and all that remains – as the playwright points out in his preface – is text.

Quijóteres: The Ingenious Puppet Don Quijote de la Mancha

Written, translated and adapted by Jason Yancey

In true Cervantine fashion of overlapping and blurred frames, this warning to maintain a safe distance from the theatre appears to have spilled off the page and into real life.

Policy

By Antonio Muñoz de Mesa
Translated by Phyllis Zatlin

Can we go over the policy?

Editor’s Note 5.2

This issue of The Mercurian is bookended by theatrical translations from two languages and two countries we have not published before: Che Xiao’s translation of Villain in a Turbulent Time from China, and Roger Allen’s translation of Soiree for the Fifth of July from Syria.