Nina Sadur, the playwright, occupies a prominent place in the
Soviet/Russian drama pantheon of the 1980s and 1990s, a group that has
with few exceptions been generally ignored by the Western literary
establishment. The plays included in this volume offer some of Sadur's
most influential works for the theater to the English-speaking audience
for the first time. The collection will appeal to readers interested in
Russian literature and culture, Russian theater, as well as women's
literature. Sadur's plays are inspired by symbolist drama, the theater
of the absurd and Russian folklore, yet are also infused with
contemporary reality and populated by contemporary characters. Her work
is overtly gynocentric: the fictional world construes women's
traditionally downplayed concerns as narratively and existentially
central and crucial. Sadur's drama has exerted a tremendous influence on
contemporary Russian literature. Working essentially in isolation, Sadur
was able to combine the early twentieth century dramatic discourse with
that of the late Soviet era. Having built a bridge between the two eras,
Sadur prepared the rise of the new Russian drama of the 2000s.