Many of the Cherry’s world and English-language premieres now appear in print! Why not pick up the published edition of these Cherry plays:
The best contemporary plays from other countries can bring a strikingly fresh point of view to our English-language stages. Often, they can expand our sense of the playwriting form.
George Kaplan (Frédéric Sonntag, France) follows a famously fictional spy into a dizzying and darkly hilarious investigation of how conspiracy theories can shape our political realities; On the Other Side of the Sea (Jorgelina Cerritos, El Salvador) is a magical, minimalistic two-hander about documentation and belonging; The Wetsuitman (Freek Mariën, Belgium) begins as a Scandinavian noir crime thriller, and unpeels like an onion to reveal a vitally important story of our time; A Day (Gabrielle Chapdelaine, Quebec) refracts through a microscopic lens the humor and pathos of four ordinary lives; The Weight of Ants (David Paquet, Quebec) follows a pair of misfit students at “the worst High School in Quebec” as they take matters into their own hands; and Testosterone (Rebekka Kricheldorf, Germany), is a pitch-dark parable about toxic masculinities and the limits of liberal do-goodery in extreme times.
This book provides theatre programmers and educators with the materials to program new global theatre writing that is exciting, engaging and unexpected, as well as offering English-language writers, actors and readers a vital stepping-stone into new forms of dramaturgy.
An Odyssey is an epic community dramedy by Samuel Buggeln, based on Homer’s Odyssey. It premiered in a co-production of the Cherry Arts and Hangar Theatre. Since the first production it has been produced in Australia, Colorado, and twice in Texas.
“Two millennia later, this story has remarkable staying power––even though we know the narrative and its outcome, we’re on the edge of our seats.”
–Barbara Adams, The Ithaca Times (Ithaca, NY)
“An Odyssey is a perfectly brilliant and entertaining adaptation, written with great sensitivity and thoughtfulness. I’m floored by how much the script accomplishes in such a short format, and how effective its choices are. Maybe what comes through most of all is a deep sense of both humor and humanity.”
–Athena Kirk, Associate Professor of Classics, Cornell University (Ithaca, NY)
Argentine playwright Santiago Loza’s collection ‘Nothing to Do with Love’ and Other Plays was published in 2021 by Seagull Books, co-edited and co-translated by Cherry Artistic Director Samuel Buggeln. In 2017, the Cherry produced English-language premières of the title play, on a double-bill with Winter Animals, also in this volume. Other plays in the book are Altitude Sickness, I was Born to See You Smile, and The Saint, which the Cherry débuted in English in 2019.
2022 recipient of the Honorable Mention for books of theater translation from the American Society for Theater Research
Global Queer Plays, published by Oberon Books in 2018, features seven LGBTQ plays from around the world, concluding with Winter Animals by Santiago Loza, co-translated by Cherry founder Samuel Buggeln. In 2017, the Cherry produced the English-language début of Winter Animals as one-half of the double-bill Loza Plays.
The other, equally inspiring plays in this collection are:
Contempt by Danish Sheikh (India)
55 Shades of Gay by Jeton Neziraj,
translated by Alexandra Channer (Kosovo)
No Matter Where I Go by Amahl Khouri (Jordan)
Only the End of the World by Jean-Luc Lagarce,
translated by Lucie Tiberghien (France)
Taste of Love by Zhan Jie, translated by Jeremy Tiang (Taiwan)
Peace Camp Org by Mariam Bazeed (Egypt)
David Paquet’s award winning plays Wildfire & The Shoe are dark but delightful comedies telling absurdist stories of loneliness and the human experience. The Cherry produced the English-language premiere of The Shoe, translated by Leanna Brodie, as part of the 2019-2020 season. The subsequent Toronto production of The Shoe won the Jessie Richardson Theatre Award for Outstanding Original Script in 2019.
The Mercurian publishes translations of plays and performance pieces from any language into English. In 2025, Cherry Artistic and Executive Director Samuel Buggeln became the guest editor of the first ever Special Issue of The Mercurian, in a collaboration with Eurodram, the European Network for theatre translation. Sam leads the English committee of Eurodram.
The Special Issue includes The Geometry of Wheat, a play from Spain written in Spanish and Catalan; Flood Zone, written in Catalan; two short, non-realistic plays from Italy, Little Beast and Focus Group; and a pair of powerful one-act plays from Ukraine: Women in the Dark and Men in Daylight.