(b.1927-2013) A respected theatre critic for The New Leader and a published playwright, author, and translator of classical works for the modern theater.
A graduate of the London School of Economics, Bermel taught theatre and film for many years at Columbia University and Yale University. In addition to teaching at Lehman College, he served on the faculty of the CUNY Graduate Center. Bermel authored many original plays, nine of which were published as recently as 2012 in a volume entitled THROMBO and Other Plays.
Throughout his career Bermel received numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Award for playwriting and the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism. In the U.S., his work and translations received performances by the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, MA; the Phoenix Theatre, Cocteau Repertory Theatre, La Mama, and New Federal Theatre in New York; the Arena Stage, Washington, D.C.; and Guthrie Theatre in Minnesota. His works were also produced throughout Europe.
His translations included works by Beaumarchais, Cocteau, Corneille, Courteline, Jarry, Labiche, the prize-winning French-Canadian author Jacques Languirand, and Molière. His translation of Carlo Gozzi’s The Green Bird was performed on Broadway at the Cort Theatre. The American Repertory Theatre production of Gozzi’s King Stag, in Bermel’s translation, toured worldwide to cities as diverse as Venice, Madrid, Tokyo, Taipei, and Moscow.
His critical works included Molière’s Theatrical Bounty (1990); Carlo Gozzi: Five Tales for the Theatre (1989, co-translated by Ted Emery); Shakespeare at the Moment: Playing the Comedies (2000); Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty (1977); and the companion volumes Contradictory Characters (1973) and Comic Agony (1993).
His essays appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Harper’s, The Nation, as well as numerous specialized theatre journals including The Independent Shavian, Yale/Theatre and The Eugene O’Neill Newsletter.