Stijn Devillé on Shakespeare is dead
Dear visitors,
I warmly welcome you to the fifth edition of Shakespeare is dead – an international festival for new playwriting, which takes place annually, alternating between Leuven and Amsterdam. Meet playwrights from all over Europe, discover their latest work during performances and readings, and join the discussion. What kind of theater is being written in Europe? What are the themes that matter? What narratives are we developing for the future? Shakespeare is dead, so let’s talk about what lives today. And tomorrow.
When the British speak of a front line in a war, they call it a theater. The Ukrainian theater. That’s not even meant ironically; it’s simply a technical term. And you can hardly imagine it, but even in times of war and repression, people are actually making theater there.
At moments when we feel our humanity is most threatened, we seem to feel the need to share our human condition. To report on it. To ask questions. Not just on TV, the news, in the newspaper, or on the internet. But also, and perhaps even more so, for an audience that is close by. An audience that also knows that human condition, that experiences it firsthand. In the theater, we look each other in the eye.
This year’s evening performances at Shakespeare is dead are dedicated to Future Narratives, future perspectives for the theater text: which stories need to be told, which voices heard? We present 7 performances from 7 European countries, each of which was created in response to a writing commission under the theme Future Narratives for Planet Earth. You’ll see work from Ukraine, Kosovo, Denmark, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and Belgium.
This season, the Ukrainian theater collective Nafta premiered Cyborg Orgy – The Last Show of the Anthropocene in a bomb shelter in Charkiv, on the front lines, where Russian bombs are falling. It doesn’t get much more concrete than that. Nor could it be more urgent. It is surprising that they are not just talking about themselves, but also about the impact the war has on the earth. We will present this extraordinary performance on the opening night of our festival.
That war leaves scars, not only on people but also on the landscape and in the urban fabric, is demonstrated by the Kosovar performance PRISHTINA. The Premeditated Killing of a Dream. More than a quarter-century after the Balkan wars, the conflict remains a daily reality that you can recognize in the urban landscape, in social relations, in the flow of money.
In the Dutch-language selection of the festival, the themes are broader. Identity, migration, feminism, populism, a cross-section of city life: in our Reading Room we present 8 recent plays and their authors from Flanders and the Netherlands. In the Reading Club, you can actively read along aloud with three new plays. Take a seat, open the brochure, and choose a role.
In our Searchlight Sessions, we coach emerging playwrights on their early work, and in our Scratch Nights, we bring that work straight to the stage. Aficionados can get hands-on in workshops and masterclasses. We also host roundtable discussions and debates, and there’s plenty of room for connection. You can read all about it in this brochure.
Dear visitors. Welcome. Join the conversation. Look us in the eye.
Stijn Devillé
Director Het nieuwstedelijk
