Words at sea

In a cold, apparently insignificant day in April, in the small British seaside town of Sheerness, a man arrives from the sea. Nothing’s known about his origin. For months, the small town is taken over by this mystery. Always quiet, the outsider just plays piano for hours on end, awakening everyone’s curiosity. Little by little, the villagers’ theories about him multiply. Who is this man? Why won’t he say anything?

Based on a true story, Frank Siera’s Ressaca de palavras, translated by Cris Larin, is a poetic play, with musical, rhythmic writing. It’s one of the five titles published by the Dramaturgia Holandesa collections, which presents foundational Dutch contemporary theater texts translated by important names of Brazilian theater.

About the author
Frank Siera was born in Katwijk, in the Netherlands, in 1989. He’s a playwright and director. His writing is inspired in true stories or mythological legends, moved by a philosophical approach, and composed in poetic, rhythmic form. Music and sound are important aspects of his work, both in the plays he writes and the productions he directs. Siera is one of the artistic leaders of Kassett, a musical theater collective for which he has written and directed various plays. His debut, Ressaca de palavras (2012), was translated into German and French. In 2016, he was awarded the Fresh Text prize for best play (still unstaged) for Ongerijmd. His writing has been published in multiple literary journals.

About the translator
Cris Larin was born in Rio de Janeiro, in 1965. She’s an actress and director, and studied at Casa de Artes de Laranjeiras (CAL). She studied Performance Studies and Rasaesthetics with Michelle Minnik, at New York University, and the Viewpoints system and Suzuki method (amovement grammar based in Japanese theater, ballet techniques, and martial arts) at SITI Company, cofounded by Tadashi Suzuki and directed by Anne Bogart, in Los Angeles, in 2006. In 2008, she was nominated for an Arte Qualidade Brasil award for best actress in the drama category, for her work in Senhora dos afogados, by Cia. Teatral do Movimento, directed by Ana Kfoury. She’s part of the companhia brasileira de teatro, directed by Marcio Abreu. Her most recent works were the stage production Porque não vivemos, directed by Marcio Abreu, and the feature film Album em família, by Daniel Belmonte, for which she was nominated for a Kikito award for best actress in the 49th Gramado Festival, in 2021.

About the collection
The Dramaturgy collection has, since 2012, published writing by Brazilian and international playwrights. The books help in building a memory of current theater, making a new record in the contemporary theater scene. In 2015, Cobogó also launched Dramaturgia Espanhola, the Spanish collection, and, in 2019, Dramaturgia Francesa (2019), the French collection, as part of the Projeto de Internacionalização de Dramaturgias [Playwriting Internationalization Project], conceived by Márcia Dias, alongside the Núcleo dos Festivais Internacionais de Artes Cênicas do Brasil [Brazilian Performing Arts International Festival Center]. Now the Dutch collection, Dramaturgia Holandesa, arrives, with the support of Nederlands Letterenfonds – Dutch Foundation for Literature, and the Performing Arts Fund NL. There are over 100 titles published in the Dramaturgia collection, featuring various award-winning plays from over 70 important playwrights.

Specifications
Title Ressaca de palavras
[Words at sea]
Collection Dutch Dramaturgy Collection
Author Frank Siera
Translator Cris Larin
Language Portuguese
Page count 80
ISBN 978-65-5691-065-9  
Cover Radiográfico
Format Softcover
Size 13 x 19 cm
Year 2022