1st Edition
Contemporary European Playwrights
Contemporary European Playwrights presents and discusses a range of key writers that have radically reshaped European theatre by finding new ways to express the changing nature of the continent’s society and culture, and whose work is still in dialogue with Europe today.
Traversing borders and languages, this volume offers a fresh approach to analyzing plays in production by some of the most widely-performed European playwrights, assessing how their work has revealed new meanings and theatrical possibilities as they move across the continent, building an unprecedented picture of the contemporary European repertoire. With chapters by leading scholars and contributions by the writers themselves, the chapters bring playwrights together to examine their work as part of a network and genealogy of writing, examining how these plays embody and interrogate the nature of contemporary Europe.
Written for students and scholars of European theatre and playwriting, this book will leave the reader with an understanding of the shifting relationships between the subsidized and commercial, the alternative and the mainstream stage, and political stakes of playmaking in European theatre since 1989.
Foreword Tiago Rodrigues; Introduction Maria M Delgado, Bryce Lease, Dan Rebellato; 1 European Playwriting and Politics, 1945-1989 Dan Rebellato; 2 Elfriede Jelinek and Werner Schwab: Heimat Critique and Dissections of Right-wing Populism and Xenophobia Karen Jürs-Munby; 3 Weronika Szczawińska and Agnieszka Jakimiak: Dramaturge as a Figure of Transition Bryce Lease; 4 András Visky and Matéi Visniec: Challenging Boundaries of Cultural Specificity Jozefina Komporaly; 5 Lars Norén and Jon Fosse: Nordic Grey or Theatre Innovators? Rikard Hoogland; 6 Martin Crimp and Simon Stephens: British Playwrights as European Playwrights David Barnett; 7 Marius von Mayenburg and Roland Schimmelpfennig: Dissecting European Lives Under Global Capitalism Peter Boenisch; 8 Sarah Kane and Mark Ravenhill: The ‘Blood and Sperm’ Generation Andrew Hayden; 9 Vasilii Sigarev and the Presniakov Brothers: Staging the New Russia Noah Birksted-Breen; 10 Paweł Demirski and Dorota Masłowska: Painful Pasts, Transformative Presents Bryce Lease; 11 Jordi Galceran and Juan Mayorga: Unravelling the Present, Narrativizing the Past Maria M. Delgado; 12 Ivan Vyrypaev and Natalia Vorozhbyt: Language, Memory, and Cultural Mythology in Russian and Ukrainian New Drama Molly Flynn; 13 Enda Walsh and Martin McDonagh: Re-imagining Irish Theatre Patrick Lonergan; 14 Yasmina Reza and Florian Zeller: The Art of Success Dominic Glynn; 15 Lena Kitsopoulou and Yannis Mavritsakis: Greek Theatre at the Antipodes of Crisis Elizabeth Sakellaridou; 16 Emma Dante and Fausto Paravidino: Families, National Identity, and International Audiences Margherita Laera; 17 Biljana Srbljanović and Ivana Sajko: Voice in the Place of Silence Duška Radosavljević; 18 Debbie Tucker Green and Alice Birch: ‘Angry feminists’ on the European Stage Marissia Fragkou; 19 Peter Handke: Inhabiting the World Together Hans-Thies Lehmann; 20 Jonas Hassen Khemiri: Writing out of the Binary Bryce Lease; 21 Marie NDiaye: Eliding Capture Kélina Gotman; 22 Afterword: The Constructed Space David Greig; Index
Biography
Maria M. Delgado is Professor of Theatre and Screen Arts at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London, UK. Her publications include ‘Other’ Spanish Theatres (2003, revised Spanish-language edition, 2017), Federico García Lorca (2008) and ten co-edited volumes.
Bryce Lease is Reader in Theatre and Performance Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK and Co-Editor of Contemporary Theatre Review. His publications include After '89: Polish Theatre and the Political (MUP) and The History of Polish Theatre (CUP).
Dan Rebellato is a playwright and Professor of Contemporary Theatre at Royal Holloway University of London, UK. His publications include 1956 and All That (1999), Theatre and Globalization (2009), and the Cambridge Companions to British Theatre 1945 and Contemporary British Plays and Playwriting (2020).
