Theatre of Sabina Berman The Agony of Ecstasy and Other Plays

The Theatre of Sabina Berman:The Agony of Ecstasyand Other Playsintroduces 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,andHeresy.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 inThe Agony of Ecstasy;the physicalization of what it means to be interrogated and to interrogate inYankee;the final enigmatic image of a soldier alone on stage, silently aiming his firearm at an undefined threat that potentially emanates from the audience inPuzz≤or the manner in which the family narrates its own "heretical" actions inHeresy.It is the combination of theatrical technique with universal themes of self-definition that cuts across cultures and ultimately makes these plays translatable.Berman, Sabina is the author of 'Theatre of Sabina Berman The Agony of Ecstasy and Other Plays', published 2002 under ISBN 9780809324583 and ISBN 080932458X.