Mert Dilek, Trinity

Degree: PhD
Course: English
Supervisor: Dr Edward Allen
Dissertation Title: Estranged Realisms on the Modernist Stage

Biographical Information

In 2018, I graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in English and Political Science from Yale University, where I received the John Hubbard Curtis Prize, the Sholom and Marcia Herson Scholarship Prize, and the Lloyd Mifflin Prize. I then completed, with distinction, the MPhil in Modern and Contemporary Literature at Trinity College, Cambridge, where I was the recipient of the Baer Pettit Studentship in the Humanities. Currently, my doctoral studies are supported by the Camilla Mash Studentship in English Literature at Trinity College. At the Faculty of English, I co-convene the Drama and Performance Research Seminar.

In conjunction with my academic work, I regularly contribute theatre criticism to several publications, including The Arts Desk, Broadway World, The Theatre Times, and The Stage. I also collaborate with theatre companies as a dramaturg and am currently affiliated with the National Theatre. Previously, I worked as a script reader for The Space, Arcola Theatre, and Bush Theatre: I supported the artistic teams of these venues in identifying and nurturing emerging talent, as well as developing new plays towards production.

My dramaturgical practice also extends to translation and adaptation, in which context I actively work between between English and Turkish. My Turkish translation of Alan Ayckbourn’s 1975 play Bedroom Farce premiered at Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality City Theatre in February 2022.

If you would like to get in touch, please feel free to contact me at md795@cam.ac.uk.

Research Interests

My PhD research examines the representation of stage objects and materiality in twentieth-century Anglo-American drama, with an emphasis on the works of Samuel Beckett, David Storey, and Adrienne Kennedy. More broadly, my scholarly interests range across European, British, and American drama and performance from the late nineteenth century to the present, and draw upon theatre history, literary and dramatic criticism, and new materialisms.

Other dramatists of particular interest include George Bernard Shaw, J. M. Synge, Susan Glaspell, Caryl Churchill, Annie Baker, Jackie Sibblies Drury, and Robert Icke.

Selected Publications