These Catalan plays can perhaps best be seen in contrast to the British tradition of 'state of the nation' and 'in yer face' playwrighting. The plays are somewhat enigmatic and even elliptical. They represent elements of a more 'European' less 'UK' playwrighting style with echoes of early Pinter, maybe David Mercer. There is just a hint of Mark Ravenhill/Sarah Kane but any potential violence is purely implied.The Sales Complete is an apparently non-political work concerned with three characters involved in the selling and buying of an apartment - solitary souls who are lost in the desert of the modern world, seeking an arm to cling on to so that they may be saved. It has a social context but this is subservient to the characters' stilted emotional interaction. A collision between the personal and the political; a past affair that might just rekindle and present corruption in 'the party'. Can he persuade her not to cause trouble for the party leadership or will she ignore the feelings she still has for him to bring the leadership down? "Black Beach" is more naturalistic but even here we are not really told exactly what the politics of 'the party' is.

The Plays Libration by Lluisa Cunill (Spain): A mysterious, intense and comic two-hander about two women who meet in a city park at night. The End Of The Dream Season by Miriam Kainy (Israel): A woman doctor outwits her friends and relations to retain her inheritance. Harsh Angel by Maria Avraamidou (Cyprus): A gentle Chekhovian tale of a family torn by the partition of their native land. Mephisto adapted from the novel by Klaus Mann/ Ariane Mnouchkine (France/Germany): The story of a German actor who sells his soul to Nazi ideology. Also a feature film.

Two plays about cultural identity from Scotland and Catalonia, which received their English-language premieres in August 1999 at the Royal Lyceum Theatre as part of the Edinburgh International Festival in Traverse Theatre Company productions The Speculator is set in Paris in 1720. The French playwright Pierre Marivaux is playing games with love and chance. Europe is in chaos. And John Law, a Scot from Edinburgh, is the richest and most powerful man in the world. He upsets order and alters the value of money. How long can his influence last? David Greig's new play is a rambunctious costume drama that toys with history and questions whether imagination can, or should, triumph over truth. Some events in the play are true. The rest is speculation. The Meeting, translated by John London, follows a string of chance encounters. A businessman on a journey crosses paths and shares his life with those of passing strangers. An old man is convinced there is buried treasure in the city park. A watchmaker talks to him about time. A young man and a traveller speak of their discontent. Shared pasts and common desires create a web of complexity in Luisa Cunille's challenging new play, turning random meetings into rendezvous with destiny."David Greig is the most consistently interesting, prolific and artistically ambitious writer of his generation" (Scotsman); "Frequently compared to Harold Pinter...Cunille has discovered a special style" (ABC, Madrid)