The contention here is that the relocation of language involves the fragmentation of the entire play. From his unique perspective as translated playwright as well as director/adapter of plays, Nagy first explores the translational processes of adaptation, interpretation, paraphrasing, contemporization, and most importantly, understanding, that combine to create meaning in the theatre. He assesses theatrical attempts to cross the cultural frontier that still encloses Eastern Europe. Discovering, in an attempt to 'transplant' Three Sisters to Hungarian soil, that Chekhov's samovar is a unique and untranslatable cultural phenomenon, he draws a parallel with the role and significance of the whole cultural-historical-spiritual milieu of Hungary, closed behind linguistic and historical barriers. Drawing on this experience and his stage adaptations of King Lear, Anna Karenina, and Kierkegaard's The Seducer's Diary, he concludes that it is holistic context rather than discrete text that poses the real challenge to the translator for performance.