Eastern Promise: Seven Plays from Central and Eastern Europe (Aurora Metro Press) - Tapa blanda

JENUFA, HER STEPDAUGHTER: Originally entitled Her Stepdaughter, Preissova shows how a bourgeois, mill-owning family in a narrow-minded Catholic community is caught in the toils of sexual betrayal, murder and forgiveness. --London Evening Standard

THE BELGRADE TRILOGY: It's this twenty-something generation that Biljana Srbljanovic has starting over in new countries where they don't know the language, have no money, and where their academic degrees and ethnic heritage are looked at with derision. It's these young academics, professionals, and artists who are upset by a war they don't agree with -- not so much because of its atrocities, but because of its disruption in their lives -- that Ms. Srbljanovic has pushed to the edge of sanity in a disturbing, brooding drama with surprising bits of dark humor. It's angry, determined, despairing, cynical, and brims with a sadness of unfulfilled potential. Perhaps not what everyone desires to rush out and view for an evening of theatre, but it's not designed to make you feel light, it's designed to make you think. Set up as three distinct, yet inter-related stories, Belgrade Trilogy takes place on the same New Year's Eve in three apartments in Prague, Sydney, and Los Angeles. Each of the stories is a different tale, as a group of Serbs meets to ring in the New Year, discuss their lives, and grapple with life in the Capitalist West. As they fight, feud, lie to each other, and begin to crack under the tension, it becomes apparent that the connecting thread of each story is a young, Serbian woman named Ana Simovic who makes a momentary appearance in the final minutes of the play. --Curtain

THE TENDER MERCIES: This new play must rank as one of the most powerful in recent years. What marks Vujovic's drama out is the fascinating way it demonstrates how language can become an effective weapon of war. The language buzzes with colloquial fizz as playwright Sladjana Vujovic mimes mundaneness of evil with playful wit and measured menace. An unflinching look at the ways in which war robs everyone of their humanity - from the prisoners to the soldiers who captured them. A major talent. --The Scotsman

THE BELGRADE TRILOGY: It's this twenty-something generation that Biljana Srbljanovic has starting over in new countries where they don't know the language, have no money, and where their academic degrees and ethnic heritage are looked at with derision. It's these young academics, professionals, and artists who are upset by a war they don't agree with -- not so much because of its atrocities, but because of its disruption in their lives -- that Ms. Srbljanovic has pushed to the edge of sanity in a disturbing, brooding drama with surprising bits of dark humor. It's angry, determined, despairing, cynical, and brims with a sadness of unfulfilled potential. Perhaps not what everyone desires to rush out and view for an evening of theatre, but it's not designed to make you feel light, it's designed to make you think. Set up as three distinct, yet inter-related stories, Belgrade Trilogy takes place on the same New Year's Eve in three apartments in Prague, Sydney, and Los Angeles. Each of the stories is a different tale, as a group of Serbs meets to ring in the New Year, discuss their lives, and grapple with life in the Capitalist West. As they fight, feud, lie to each other, and begin to crack under the tension, it becomes apparent that the connecting thread of each story is a young, Serbian woman named Ana Simovic who makes a momentary appearance in the final minutes of the play. --Curtain

THE TENDER MERCIES: This new play must rank as one of the most powerful in recent years. What marks Vujovic's drama out is the fascinating way it demonstrates how language can become an effective weapon of war. The language buzzes with colloquial fizz as playwright Sladjana Vujovic mimes mundaneness of evil with playful wit and measured menace. An unflinching look at the ways in which war robs everyone of their humanity - from the prisoners to the soldiers who captured them. A major talent. --The Scotsman

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.