The Soviet tour in 1935 of the eminent Chinese male interpreter of female roles, Mei Lanfang, attracted justified international attention as a pioneering instance of cultural and aesthetic exchange. This is not least due to the fact that it was the first time a traditional Chinese theatre troupe made a guest appearance in Europe and that so many prominent Russian and other European theatre innovators consequently eagerly followed the event and reacted to the traditional Chinese stage conventions according to their very different aesthetic points of view. Complementing my published research over the years into the details of this major intercultural stage event, in this article I reverse my perspective and almost exclusively focus on its foreign-policy context. I demonstrate that from the more pragmatic point of view of international politics at the time, another aspect of Mei’s tour was much more important: It was an act of cultural diplomacy which helped break a deadlock in foreign relations between the Soviet Union and the Republic of China, and in so doing helped facilitate their formation of a defensive military alliance in response to the rapidly increasing Japanese aggression against them both. War memories, as well as memory wars, formed part of this foreign policy staging of Mei Lanfang’s Soviet guest appearance and its subsequent documentation.
Why a Theatre Laboratory? It includes the programme of a three days’ international symposium from October 4th through 6th 2004. This is the first initiative taken by the Centre for Theatre Laboratory Studies (CTLS), a newly inaugurated centre under Aarhus University in cooperation with Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium. Peripeti include articles on Stanislavski, Meyerhold, Copeau, Decroux, Grotowski, Peter Brook, Théâtre du Soleil, and Odin Teatret and the theatre laboratory praxis of these masters and inventors, including, of course, reflections on their function and effect. In the last article, Eugenio Barba reflects on the creative process of Odin Teatret over the last 40 years. In addition, we also include the curriculum vitae on those participating in the symposium.
The occasion of the symposium is to celebrate the 40th anniversary in October 2004 of Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium/Odin Teatret. Congratulations.
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