Theatre of Real People

Dr Ulrike Garde is Senior Lecturer in German Studies at Macquarie University, Australia. Her research interests range across Intercultural German Studies, German literature and the performing arts. Her publications include Brecht & Co: German-speaking Playwrights on the Australian Stage (2007). Dr Meg Mumford is Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of New South Wales, Australia. Her research focuses on social engagement, intercultural exchange, and the politics of performing bodies, particularly with regard to theatre from Germany and Australia. She has published extensively on the work of playwright-director Bertolt Brecht, and is the author of Bertolt Brecht (2009).The authors co-edited Rimini Protokoll Close-Up: Lektüren (2014) together with Johannes Birgfeld, as well as the 2015 issue of Performance Paradigm on the arts and effects of non-professional theatre performers.

With this book, Garde and Mumford notably advance the study of Theatre of the Real and of the performer in documentary theatre … The notion of a skeptical approach to Authenticity-Effects and the impact that this can have on willing audiences is a thrilling step forward in the field and one that can have a wide impact among both scholars and theatre practitioners.

• Introduction 1. A Historical Perspective on Theatre of Real People2. Theatre of Real People at the HAU3. Theatre and Authenticity-Effects4. Encounters with Cultural Diversity at the HAU5. Berliners with an ‘Authenticity Guarantee’: Cultural Complexity in 100% Berlin and 100% City6. Meeting Unfamiliar Residents in Berlin: Playing with Frames of Reference in X-Apartments7. Unsettling Journey into the Unfamiliar: Ambiguous Guides to the City in Call Cutta: Mobile Phone Theatre 8. Getting Closer to the Subject(s) of Migration: Partial Proximity in Schwarzmarkt No. 7 and Mr Dagaçar and the Golden Tectonics of TrashConclusionBibliographyIndex