New Drama in Russian: Performance, Politics and Protest in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus

(Hardback)

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Description

How and why does the stage, and those who perform upon it, play such a significant role in the social makeup of modern Russia, Ukraine and Belarus In New Drama in Russian, Julie Curtis brings together an international team of leading scholars and practitioners to tackle this complex question. New Drama, which draws heavily on techniques of documentary and verbatim writing, is a key means of protest in the Russian-speaking world; since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, theatres, dramatists, and critics have collaborated in using the genre as a lens through which to explore a wide range of topics from human rights and state oppression to sexuality and racism. Yet surprisingly little has been written on this important theatrical movement. New Drama in Russian rectifies this. Through providing analytical surveys of this outspoken transnational genre alongside case-studies of plays and interviews with playwrights, this volume sheds much-needed light on the key issues of performance, politics, and protest in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Meticulously researched and elegantly argued, this book will be of immense value to scholars of Russian cultural history and post-Soviet literary studies.

Reviews

Combining insightful analysis of specific texts, productions, playwrights and theatre directors with interviews with the brightest figures of the Russian stage and a sweeping survey of recent developments in drama in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, this imaginative book is an invaluable source of information about modern Russian drama to date. * Evgeny Dobrenko, Professor of Russian Studies, University of Sheffield, UK *
At once skilfully edited and intellectually ambitious, this book offers perhaps the most comprehensive picture of the international theatre movement called New Drama at a time of cultural and political crisis. * Maksim Hanukai, Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA *
Bringing together young and experienced scholars, playwrights and theatre director, New Drama in Russian is a definite must-read for anyone interested in post-socialist theatre and culture in general, as well as for the readers seeking new approaches to politics and activism. This volumes clearly demonstrate how New Drama that started in Russia in the early 2000s with the introduction of verbatim plays, has revolutionized not only Russian, but also Ukrainian and Belorussian cultures, let alone theatre. Furthermore, this volume represents the New Drama as a new artistic discourse on politics one that doesnt only reflect on political issues, but creates political spaces, dissensus and agon highly need in societies experiencing populist and authoritarian pressure. * Mark Lipovetsky, Professor of Russian, Columbia University, USA *
All contributions to the volume are of interest and exceptionally well written ... Serves as worthy testimony to the authenticity and vitality of a critical moment and movement in the theatrical history of all three nations. * Slavonic & East European Review *

Author Bio

J.A.E. Curtis is a Professor of Russian Literature at the University of Oxford, UK. She is the author of A Readers Companion to Mikhail Bulgakovs The Master and Margarita (2019), Mikhail Bulgakov (2017), and The Englishman from Lebedian': A Life of Evgeny Zamiatin (2013).