I was away on holiday for the first half of August (and resisting the temptation to post holiday snaps here!), so sadly was unable to attend the Royal Court’s New and Now series of international play readings, curated by Elyse Dodgson and Sam Pritchard for the Edinburgh International Festival.  Two of these plays were pieces I have translated:  from Chile, Guillermo Calderón’s Discurso, and from Cuba, shared with an audience for the very first time, Laura Liz Gil Echenique’s Drainage Alley.

Luckily, clips from the readings have been made available on the BBC.  In this extract from Discurso, directed by the author, the wonderful Kika Markham plays Chilean president Michele Bachelet.  In this excerpt from Calderón’s reimagined farewell speech, the president laments the impossibility of transformative change and rails against the venom of the Right.

Days previously, John Tiffany directed Drainage Alley.  In this clip from Laura Liz Gil Echenique’s moving tribute to the stoic inhabitants of a lane on the outskirts of Havana, the neighbours find a crucial water pipe burst and despair at the chances of getting it fixed any time soon.