Fragmente And 3.31.93. [Paperback]

Lars NorEn, generally considered Sweden's greatest playwright since August Strindberg, has written over 75 plays. While they are regularly per-formed in Nordic and European countries and have been translated into sev-eral languages, English-language readers were deprived of his major works until 2013, when Chaucer Press Books published Two Plays: And Give Us the Shadows and Autumn and Winter, followed by Three Plays: Demons, Act, and Terminal 3 and then by Blood and War. This volume pre-sents two of NorEn's most recent major plays in English that are thematically related, written after the financial collapse of 2008:

FRAGMENTE is about what happened to the working class after the collapse, especially how its members--composed of many immigrants hit by layoffs and uncertainty--did their best to live through their often life-threat-ening situation.

3.31.93. is about a middle class neighborhood in a big city whose citizens--fraught with angst, illness and psychological problems after the financial collapse--both depend upon and avoid each other.

In both plays horrific, pointless crimes are committed that seemingly reflect the disconnect between people and governmental bu-reaucracies attempting desperately, but in vain, to be helpful and caring. What really stands out about these plays, however, is how they capture the charac-ters' humanity and the essence of their everyday lives, for better or worse.

Translator Marita Lindholm Gochman was born in Sweden and came to America in 1964, where she has had a rich theatrical career. In 1985 she translated her first NorEn play into English, The Last Supper, and has since translated 25 of his plays--making her NorEn's foremost English language translator. Since 1987 Ms. Gochman, who lives in Manhattan, NY, has served as a board member of Circle in lSÁ