Performing Statelessness in Europe

S. E. Wilmer is Professor Emeritus in Drama and former Head of the School of Drama, Film and Music at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. He has been Visiting Professor at Stanford University and UC Berkeley and Research Fellow at the International Research Centre for Interweaving Performance Cultures at the Freie Universität, Berlin. He is the author of Theatre, Society and the Nation.

“An adept volume that makes a significant contribution to the rapidly expanding field of migrant and refugee theatre studies. In a way that will be welcome to theatre scholars and students alike, it offers readers the benefit of a long-range view of European performance as well as close insights into selected works at particular times and places. … represents a unique and essential document for reflection on the imminent divergent trajectories of two old, powerful member states of … the EU.” (Emma Cox, Journal of Contemporary Drama in English, Vol. 8 (2), 2020)“The book presents gems of close performance analysis: an invaluable addition to an archive of contemporary performance … Performing Statelessness inEurope is essential reading material for all students and scholars of theatre who are deeply engaged with and disturbed by today’s social and cultural practices of migration and nationalism.” (Yana Meerzon, Modern Drama, Vol. 62 (2), 2019)

• Introduction.- 1. Recontextualization and Adaptation of Ancient Greek Dramas.- 2. Performative Identification in Fictional Accounts.- 3. Documentary Theatre by and about Refugees.- 4. Unwed Mothers, Asylums and Immersive Theatre.- 5. Creating Dissensus and Cross-identification.- 6. Subversive Identification and Over-identification.- 7. Two Approaches to Nomadism: Fluxus and Théâtre du Soleil.- 8. The Institutional Response of the German Theatre.- Conclusion.