Maria M. Delgado - 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 continents society and culture, and whose work is still in dialogue with Europe today.

Traversing borders and languages, this volume offers a fresh approach to analysing 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 subsidised and commercial, the alternative and the mainstream stage, and political stakes of playmaking in European theatre since 1989.

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 Garca 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 (2016) and A History of Polish Theatre (2021).

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).

First published 2020

by Routledge

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2020 selection and editorial matter, Maria M. Delgado, Bryce Lease and Dan Rebellato; individual chapters, the contributors

The right of Maria M. Delgado, Bryce Lease and Dan Rebellato to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Delgado, Maria M., editor. | Lease, Bryce, editor. | Rebellato, Dan, editor.

Title: Contemporary European playwrights / edited by Maria M. Delgado, Bryce Lease and Dan Rebellato.

Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York : Routledge 2020. |

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020001676 (print) | LCCN 2020001677 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: European drama--21st century--Themes and motives. |

Theater--Europe--History--21st century. | Theater and society--Europe--History--21st century. |

Literature and society--Europe--History--21st century. | Dramatists, European--21st century.

Classification: LCC PN1861.2 C66 2020 (print) | LCC PN1861.2 (ebook) | DDC 809.2/051--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020001676

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020001677

ISBN: 978-1-138-08421-6 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-08422-3 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-11194-0 (ebk)

We owe a debt of thanks to the many people and institutions who worked with us in the process of researching, commissioning, and delivering this volume. First, the authors who contributed to this volume for their patience and generosity and the photographers and theatres who shared images, resources, and time, including: Oleg Chernous, Tristam Kenton, Gala Lavrinets, Stefan Okoowicz, Magorzata Makowska, Draen Smaranduj, Teatro de la Abada Madrid, Pavn Teatro Kamikaze Madrid, Sala Beckett Barcelona, Galway Arts Festival, TR Warszawa, Mladinsko Theatre Ljubljana, Sava Ognyanov Drama Theatre Ruse, Dramaten Stockholm, Schaubhne Berlin, Chekhov Moscow Arts Theatre, Wild Theatre Kyiv, Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh and Zagreb Youth Theatre.

Thanks also to those whose conversations with us enriched this volume: Elizabeth Angel-Perez, Lola Arias, Miguel del Arco, Matthew Cornish, Kate Dorney, Nuria Espert, Clare Finburgh Delijani, Maggie Gale, Lia Ghilardi, Lynette Goddard, Jean Graham-Jones, gnes Havas, Agnieszka Jakimiak, Marcin Kocielniak, Jean-Marc Lanteri, Brbara Lluch, Katie Mitchell, Marcos Ordez, Jen Parker-Starbuck, Llus Pasqual, Andrea Peghinelli, Jos Mara Pou, Mark Ravenhill, Talia Rodgers, Tiina Rosenberg, Merc Saumell, Aleks Sierz, Joanne Tompkins, Elisabeth Wennerstrm, Simon Williams, and Marilena Zaroulia. Karen Jrs-Munby and Lisa Moravec co-produced an excellent translation of Hans-Thies Lehmanns portrait of Peter Handke and particular thanks to Karen for the additional translation of Lehmanns response to Handkes Nobel Prize. Peter Boenisch offered helpful advice far beyond the bounds of his own chapter in this volume. Our thanks to Ben Piggott, Laura Soppelsa, Zoe Forbes, and Kate Edwards at Routledge for their support for the project and to James Rowson for his work on the index.

Maria Delgado would like to acknowledge the assistance of The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of Londons Targeted Completion Fund for their financial support of this volume. Thanks are due also to Joshua Abrams, Ross Brown, Broderick Chow, Stephen Farrier, Tony Fisher, Dan Hetherington, Kate Pitt, and colleagues in the European Theatre Research Network. She would also like to acknowledge the conversations and discussions with colleagues on the International Ibsen Award Committee: Anders Beyer, Roman Dolzhanskiy, Kilkka-Liisa Iivanainen, Ingrid Lorentzen, Thomas Oberender, and Hanne Tmta. Bryce Lease would like to thank Olga Drygas at Nowy Teatr for her assistance with tickets to relevant performances and sourcing images. He would also like to acknowledge the many members of the Instytut Teatralny in Warsaw for their excellent and under-appreciated work in generating and caring for crucial theatre and performance archives. Changes in government and funding structures continue to put such institutions at risk across Europe. Delgado and Leases work on the book has also been supported by the AHRC-funded project, Staging Difficult Pasts: Of Narratives, Objects and Public Memory (Grant Reference: AH/R006849/1). Dan Rebellato would like to thank the Universities and Colleges Union for calling a strike that, ironically, opened up time and space to finish work on this book.