Between, Against, Beyond: Challenging National Identities in Contemporary Greek Theatre

Abstract

This thesis explores how contemporary theatre critically deals with the question of national identity. The theatre’s interest in the question of national identity in the twenty-first century should not be explained only as an answer to extremist nationalist voices. Much more, one should account for the reasons why the idea of nation still evokes emotional responses in our societies. In which ways might contemporary theatre, with its non-representational aesthetics, not only deconstruct, but also critically redefine the concept of identity without completely rejecting it? How is theatre’s response to nation affected by the historical, cultural and institutional context within which performances are produced and received? How different theatrical approaches to national identity (on stage as well as on an institutional level) might invite the spectators to reconsider their own national self-perceptions and (often unnoticed) national attachments? This thesis proposes a typology of three modes of theatre’s critical engagement with the concept of national identity: a dialectical, a deconstructive and a nation-transcending mode. In my analysis I focus on the case of contemporary Greek theatre in the period 2006 – 2015 and particularly on productions of the National Theatre of Greece and the Hellenic Festival (Athens and Epidaurus Festival). Due to the “national” terms under which their tradition and identity have been constructed, both these cultural institutions lend themselves well to an exploration of the relationship between theatre and nation through the suggested typology of the three modes. During the examined period, their programming choices and strategies concerning theatre space challenged homogeneous narratives and singular conceptions of nation and national identity.