SOURCE: Karter, M. Joshua. “Back from the Nikitsky Gates Theater: Reflections on Cross-Cultural Concerns in the Staging of Marsha Norman's 'night, Mother in Moscow.” Theatre Topics 4, no. 1 (March 1994): 75-88.

In the following essay, Karter discusses the cross-cultural differences that were raised when he directed a production of Norman's 'night, Mother, translated into Russian, at a theater in Moscow.

As the cast, our translator, and I sat around a small table in the mirrored reception hall of Moscow's Nikitsky Gates Theater, I smiled to myself, knowing that I'd now have to try to explain the cultural significance of Howard Johnson's restaurants. We were in the second day of the initial desk work on our production of Marsha Norman's 'night, Mother, and we had come upon one of those small but telling moments in the play. Thelma, while struggling to find reasons for Jessie to want to stay alive, proposes...