With this special issue, South Atlantic Quarterly presents a collection of original works by some of the brightest stars in contemporary American theatre. The collection embraces works whose supreme engine is poetic - works that go beyond realism and will challenge audiences’ expectations and move them toward a revolutionary theatrical experience. Neal Bell, Nilo Cruz, Erin Cressida Wilson, Marlane Meyer, and Don DeLillo have all made contributions, employing techniques and situations that are original and unexpected. Each play is presented with a scholarly analysis by such respected critics as Fredric Jameson, Jose Esteban Munoz, and Frank Lentricchia, and each is followed by an interview with the author. Monster, by Neal Bell, is a powerful adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, thrusting the violence of the novel into the sharp relief of our times. Nilo Cruz’s Two Sisters and a Piano takes an intimate look at Cuba during the collapse of the Soviet Union and contemplates the meaning of Cubanness in today’s culture. The Mystery at the Middle of Ordinary Life, DeLillo’s jewel of a short play, meditates on the gradually shattering nature of human relationships. In The Trail of Her Inner Thigh, Erin Cressida Wilson follows a boy-man as he embarks on an epic journey into emotionality and sensuality, with the help of the women in his life. And Marlane Meyer’s play, The Mystery of Attraction, presents a journey down the dangerous rabbit hole of masculinity. Mysterious Actions marks the first publication of all of these plays, and this special issue is therefore certain to have a profound impact on the theatrical and literary worlds. The plays focus on the mysterious and the unreal in their characters’ lives and, in so doing, provide a window into the everyday and the real in our human experience.
