Volume 13

The special focus of this issue is Eastern European theatre, for an obvious reason: the anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Thirty years later, it’s no surprise that the key word for the traditionally very rich theatre landscape …

About three months ago he was still busy working on the publication of his collection of short, haiku-type poems he had been writing incessantly for many years.

A month before his 92^nd birthday on March 10, 2019 Andrzej Tadeusz …

In November 2018, when we received the sad information about the Lithuanian director Eimuntas Nekrošius’ unexpected passing in Vilnius, it turned out that his production of Witold Gombrowicz’s Marriage at the National Theatre in Warsaw (premiere: June, 15^th, …

The sound of a quartet tuning. An alchemical procedure of attunement before a performance.

The respite of an extended silence imbued with utter darkness.

Then, the melancholic sound of a violin that transmutes into a disconsolate musical interlude, before a …

“A hidden bond of sorts has always connected theatre with a search for the identity of a community, a social situation in a given collective, city or nation,” says Jiří Havelka (born in 1980), a key member of the middle …

If the International Theatre Festival in Pilsen was a human being, s/he would be dressed in an unassuming manner, yet elegantly and with flawless taste. S/he would be one of those industrious people who do not show off their work …

The Scarlet Princess is the newest production of Silviu Purcărete at Radu Stanca National Theatre in Sibiu, Romania. It is the hot winner in three categories of the Romanian theatre awards (UNITER): for best production, best actress in a leading …

It has been said about Hamlet that it stands for one thousand plays. It is the staging option that makes the difference. This “sponge-play” (to paraphrase Jan Kott) can be approached as a metaphysical, political, philosophical, psychoanalytical tragedy, a thriller, …

Plays staged at the National Theatre in Belgrade have left their mark on the theatre scene in the recent years. The National Theatre houses three ensembles under its roof – the Drama, the Opera, and the Ballet—the first of them …

The Shadow of My Soul is the first ever production of shadow theatre that was created and performed by completely blind actors. However, it is unique not only because of their outstanding performances but also because of the talent of …

The Croatian city of Rijeka will be the European Capital of Culture in 2020 and a theatre program is envisaged especially for the occasion. All its details will be announced this Fall. At this moment, though, some of the included …

Madrid’s Teatro del Barrio has had a regular presence at Barcelona’s Teatre Lliure during Lluís Pasqual’s time as artistic director (2011-18). Ruz-Bárcenas, a verbatim production on People’s Party treasurer Luis Bárcenas’ testimony before Spain’s Audiencia Nacional (High Court) and El …

In the year in which Nuria Espert was awarded the Europe Theatre Special Prize acknowledging a career in theatre lasting over sixty-five years, she chose to work with director Lluís Pasqual on the sixty-minute Romancero gitano (Gypsy Ballads), …

December 2018 included an eclectic variety of productions in Copenhagen, Denmark, since the late fall/winter theatre seasons seem to flourish during the long, dark nights in Scandinavia. Copenhagen has a diverse theatre, music and art scene that is strongly related …

One of the phenomena that can easily be noticed when looking at the post-2000s Turkish Theatre is the increase of monodrama. A range of subjects from women’s issues to transgender persons, language, identity problems related to migration, war and political …

This is one behemoth of an evening, and no theatre in the US would have begun a five-and-a-half-hour night at 7pm, or dared to limit it to one intermission. Castorf has a reputation for testing the limits—of his actors, the …

In Vienna in March of 2018 I was able to attend an imaginative revival of a modern German classic, the premiere of an important new international work, and the final production of one of the best-known of modern German theatre …