The Role of National Theatres in an Age of Globalization

Abstract

This volume has so far focused largely on the past: the history and traditions of National Theatres, and how they have evolved through time. I want aggressively to move us into the future: what, if any, is the role of National Theatres now, and what is the relationship between individual nations and the evolving and emerging ‘New Europe’ — and beyond that — between individual European nations and the phenomenon known as globalization? Each of these terms is, of course, contested; perhaps the debatable idea of a new Europe is especially so — with its question of what Europe should now become and how it should see itself in what Barbara Susec Michieli identifies as a present moment of ethnopluralism and transnationalism (see chapter 17 in this volume). My argument has three aspects: that questions of national identity will continue to persist within and outside of National Theatre buildings; that European performances will inevitably address ‘Europe’ as well as their countries of origin; and that globalization is intertwined with any remaining notions of National Theatres.

’something unique is afoot in Europe, in what is still called ‘Europe’ even if we no longer know very well what or who goes by this name’

Jacques Derrida, The Other Heading