Lanterna Rally

Author: Sabina Berman

Publisher: SIU Press

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13:

"The Theatre of Sabina Berman: " The Agony of Ecstasy" and Other Plays" introduces and makes accessible to an English-speaking audience the work of the contemporary Mexican playwright Sabina Berman. The book contains translations of the four plays that established Berman s career: "The Agony of Ecstasy, Yankee, Puzzle, "and "Heresy. "An introduction by Adam Versenyi provides a critical assessment of each play, a discussion of the specific problems of translation involved, and placement of Berman s work in the larger Mexican and Latin American context.It is evident that Sabina Berman s theatrical acumen matches the depth of her dramatic design whether it is the sheer variety of techniques from song to staged tableau that appear in "The Agony of Ecstasy; "the physicalization of what it means to be interrogated and to interrogate in "Yankee; "the final enigmatic image of a soldier alone on stage, silently aiming his firearm at an undefined threat that potentially emanates from the audience in "Puzzle; "or the manner in which the family narrates its own heretical actions in "Heresy. "It is the combination of theatrical technique with universal themes of self-definition that cuts across cultures and ultimately makes these plays translatable."