A collection of the best plays from central and eastern europe. BELGRADE TRILOGY by BILJANA SRBLJANOVIC (Yugoslavia) Set in Sydney, Los Angeles and Prague on New Year's Eve, the everyday life of young exiles from the Balkans. Winner of the Slobodan Selenic Prize THE TENDER MERCIES by SLADJANA VUJOVIC (Montenegro) A three-hander about torture, power and language. Edinburgh fringe first winner. NASCENDO by ALINA NELEGA (Romania) Set in a Maternity ward on the eve of the revolution, patients and staff reflect the divided nature of Romanian society. THE CHOSEN ONES by ELENA POPOVA (Belorussia) Winner of the first European play competition 'A poignant portrayal of postcommunist society.' THE UMBILICAL CORD by KRYSTYNA KOFTA (Poland) An intense family relationship, where ritual has replaced real life. '...a generation suffering moral defeat.' TULIP DOCTOR by VERA FILO (Hungary) Set against the background of war, life becomes a cartoon, where anything can happen and will. JENUFA (HER STEPDAUGHTER) by GABRIELA PREISSOVA (Czech) The tragic tale of a secret birth and infanticide. The play was the basis for Janacek's opera 'Jenufa' and was translated into English for the first time for this collection.
Gabriela Preissová born in 1862, in Kutná Hora near Prague. From childhood almost to the end of the century she lived in the Slovácko region of Moravia, where she was fascinated by the local traditions and dialect. Her first published writings were Tales from Slovácko, one of which, the Beginning of a Romance was used by Leos Janáèek as the basis for his first opera. Both her plays were also set in Slovácko, The Farmer's Woman (National Theatre, Prague 1889) and Her Stepdaughter (National Theatre, Prague 1890). Both were also turned into operas; The Farmer's Woman as Eva, by J.B. Foerster and Her Step-daughter as Jenufa by Leos Janáèek. Preissová, who died in 1946, never again achieved the success of her earlier works.
Krystyna Kofta lives in Warsaw. Husband professor of psychology, son biologist. Graduated with M.A. in Polish in 1970. Novels: The Visor (1978) - (Faustian themes), Sawdust (1980) - (The Stalinist era seen through the eyes of children), The Small Predator House (1988) - (a woman gaining her freedom from the power of her mother and then her husband), No-one's Body (1988) - (a gothic romance), In Praise of Witches (1994) - (on female power), The Secret Diary of Melanie R. (1997) - (balancing between the real and virtual worlds), The Thief of Memory (1998) - (today and the memory of childhood).
Other work: The Man who didn't die (1990) - (a collection of short stories), How to get, keep and drop a man (1992) - (a parody of a self-help manual), Harpies, piranhas, angels (1997) - (a dialogue with journalist Malgorzata Domagalik on the subject of the lack of solidarity among women).
Film scripts: I like Bats (horror), Femina (based on The Small Predator's House).
Other Plays: Professor Mephisto's Salon - (Faust and Mephisto are women).
On-going work for the women's magazine Your Style.
Whether I try myself here and there, or other people try me now and then, it is to this day - I swear, that is 25 years, (Vera you're getting old - a secret). Do I see things or hear them, or just feel them under my skin or above? It's not at all clear, as my life isn't crystallising either...
I have to work on that - I am not alone in this, am I?
'The worried one
makes dates
Later
the future'
I'm quoting myself there but 'it's all the same' whatever you fancy, such is your sensitivity.
Anyway, after directing Genet, Durenmatt, Picasso and Cocteau adaptations, I didn't become modest and took up residency inside myself. After I served up Tulip Doctor on the table at the Playwrights and Theatre Practitioners, I wrote Keresok (Searchers) which was published in the magazine Szinhaz (Theatre) and puzzled over at the Inter-Play in Berlin. The play Allj-ulve (Stand-sitting) was published in the periodical Theleme. Egyenesen (Straight) won the playwriting competiton of the Miskolc Theatre. Currently I am preparing for the Orkeny Istvan Playwrighting Scholarship by fighting a word and image battle - the working title is Ariel (Smoke-stripe)... my God, why don't you sigh this way a little?
I also draw comic-strips. I write poetry too. These are somehow more accepted by the people here. I don't know why.
Sladjana Vujovic is a Yugoslav-born writer, theatre director, producer and actress.
An honours graduate, her academic background includes studies of English, drama, mathematics and archaeology. She moved to Britain in 1984.
She has worked in a number of theatres in the UK, and toured in Yugoslavia, Slovenia, Germany and Switzerland.
Alina Nelega born in 1960, in Targu-Mures, Transylvania. Graduated the Cluj/Kolosvar University in 1984. She has had short stories, plays, essays and reviews published in various literary and theatre journals. She is currently running a theatre quarterly founded by The University of Journalism of Bucharest and an alternative group of critics, based in Bucharest and Cluj.
At present she is the Artistic Director of the International New Writing Festival Dramafest and runs The Romanian New Writing Project. She is an associate lecturer at the Theatre University in Targu-Mures and runs the International Department of the National Theatre in the same city.
