Contemporary European Playwrights

Abstract

Peca is based in Berlin, Alexandra Pâzgu in Giessen. To make use of Romanian-American playwright Saviana Stănescu's terms, immigrant authors constantly live 'on the bridge of inbetweenness: negotiating between two cultures, […] two cities […], between the West and the East', in a world of 'hyphenate[d] identities ' (in Modreanu 2019). This complexity is paralleled by the situation of Romanian theatre directors: many of the canonical figures have achieved their international careers in exile (such as Lucian Pintilie, Liviu Ciulei and Andrei Șerban), whilst the most innovative Romanian artists of today (the likes of Mihai Măniuţiu, Gianina Cărbunariu, Radu Afrim, and Radu Jude) are operating as truly transglobal artists (Modreanu 2020). It is crucial to stress, however, that irrespective whether these dramatists and theatre makers actually live in Romania at present, their work is rooted in and greatly fuelled by their experience of being brought up in Romania, and is regularly published and produced in their country of origin. Some of these playwrights continue to express themselves in the Romanian language, in addition to which many of them also write in the languages of their adopted countries (not unlike fellow Romanian-born author Eugéne Ionesco); Matéi Visniec, for instance, produces multiple versions of the same text whereby he essentially engages in an act of self-translation. The work of several authors, including Alexandra Badea and Saviana Stănescu, is translated into Romanian by other important literary figures (such as Eugen Jebeleanu and Alina Nelega), thus generating synergies between authorial voices and artistic preoccupations. Furthermore, the recently founded Teatrul Dramaturgilor Români (Theatre of