Radical Revival as Adaptation ─ Theatre, Politics, Society

This book examines the radical reinterpretation of precursor texts and prompts as an innovative form of adaptation for the stage. In this context, stage adaptations are defined as active and risk-taking interventions on pre-existing sources, dramatic and otherwise, that can range from single-authored plays to collaborative creations and devising projects. Radical adaptations have the potential to constitute a cutting edge pathway of exploration in performance, by virtue of operating at the intersection between experimental practice and multiple creative transpositions and crossovers among genres and media. They offer a viable platform for the negotiation of topical concerns embedded into global cultural, socio-political and historical shifts, thus cultivating a genuine bond between theatre and society. This volume considers a range of case studies, from the work of Alexandru Tocilescu to Rimini Protokoll, and is vital reading for those interested in adaptation studies and forms of contemporary theatre practice.

Jozefina Komporaly is an academic and translator. She works on cultural exchanges between European and Anglophone performance traditions, through the lens of adaptation and translation. She is the author of Staging Motherhood (Palgrave, 2006), and edited the anthologies Matei Visniec: How to Explain the History of Communism to Mental Patients and Other Plays (2015) and Andras Visky’s Barrack Dramaturgy: Memories of the Body (2017).