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Phillip Zapkin

Penn State University, English, Faculty Member

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Phillip is an Assistant Teaching Professor of English at Penn State. He got his doctorate from WVU in 2017.
Phillip's book, Hellenic Common, is now available from Routledge.

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University of Missouri - St. Louis

Zoe Ververopoulou

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Kansas State University

Open University of Cyprus

Armando Marques-Guedes

UNL - New University of Lisbon

Ucla

Antonis K . Petrides

Open University of Cyprus

Rob S E A N Wilson

University of California, Santa Cruz

Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina - UFSC (Federal University of Santa Catarina)

Francesca Gazzano

University of Genova

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Papers by Phillip Zapkin

Medusa’s choice: Agency and the Medusa Myth in Matthew B.C.’s Medusa

Science Fiction Film & Television, 2023

Ovid’s Metamorphoses gave Medusa little agency, which has prompted numerous feminist reclamations... more Ovid’s Metamorphoses gave Medusa little agency, which has prompted numerous feminist reclamations of the gorgon. The tension around agency shapes Matthew B.C.’s feminist horror movie Medusa (2021), in which Carly Beacon transforms into a serpent-like creature after being bitten by a snake. Evoking simultaneously the gender-ambiguous figures of monster and final girl, Carly acquires increased power and autonomy as she kills her pimp and violent johns. However, her agency is undercut by both a lack of choice about being bitten and a failure to resolve the cultural conditions driving prostitution and drug addiction. Medusa troubles Carly’s empowerment by reinforcing her lack of choice and ignoring the failure to change larger socio-cultural conditions – raising questions about what genuine feminist liberation might mean.

De-Colonizing Cloudcuckooland

Routledge eBooks, Feb 6, 2023

Routledge eBooks, Jun 22, 2021

Hellenic Common

Hellenic Common Hellenic Common argues that theatrical adaptations of Greek tragedy exemplify the... more Hellenic Common Hellenic Common argues that theatrical adaptations of Greek tragedy exemplify the functioning of a cosmopolitan cultural commonwealth. Analyzing plays by Femi Osofisan, Moira Buffini, Marina Carr, Colin Teevan, and Yael Farber, this book shows how contemporary adapters draw tragic and mythic material from a cultural common and remake those stories for modern audiences. Phillip Zapkin theorizes a political economy of adaptation, combining both a formal reading of adaptation as an esthetic practice and a political reading of adaptation as a form of resistance. Drawing an ethical center from Kwame Anthony Appiah's work on cosmopolitanism and Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's theory of the common, Hellenic Common argues that Attic tragedy forms a cultural commonwealth from which dramatists the world over can rework, reimagine, and restage materials to envision aspirational new worlds through the arts. This study will be of great interest to students and scholars of drama, adaptation studies, literature, and neoliberalism.

Classicising Crisis: The Modern Age of Revolutions and the Greco-Roman Empire ed. by Barbara Goff and Michael Simpson

The Classical Journal, Feb 1, 2023

The Winter Garden: Sarah Ruhl's In the Next Room and the Dialectic Deconstruction of Separate Spheres

Journal of dramatic theory and criticism, Mar 1, 2022

War as Performance: Conflicts in Iraq and Political Theatricality by Lindsey Mantoan

Journal of dramatic theory and criticism, 2021

The apocalyptic event, in order to be properly apocalyptic, must in its destructive moment clarif... more

Antipodean Antiquities: Classical Receptions Down Under ed. by Marguerite Johnson

The Classical Journal, 2020

The Drama and Theatre of Sarah Ruhl by Amy Muse

Journal of dramatic theory and criticism, 2019

The Story of Myth by Sarah Iles Johnston

Classical World, 2019

Buying Thebes: Promoting a Cultural Commonwealth in Contemporary Anglophone Adaptations of Greek Tragedy

enact intercultural collaborations to reshape material from a cultural common and make that mater... more enact intercultural collaborations to reshape material from a cultural common and make that material meaningful for contemporary audiences. This collaborative ethos of drawing from shared source material undermines the logic of neoliberal late capitalism, which is premised on property ownership and individualist competition. "Buying Thebes" contributes to adaptation studies scholarship by theorizing a political economy of adaptation, combining both a formal reading of adaptation as an aesthetic practice and a political reading of adaptation as a form of resistance. Drawing an ethical center from Kwame Anthony Appiah's work on cosmopolitanism and Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's theory of the common, I argue that Attic tragedy forms a cultural commonwealth from which dramatists the world over can rework, reimagine, and restage materials to build new worlds through the arts. Neoliberalism imposes an economized market logic on all social and cultural interactions, which erodes possibilities for rounded humanity, democracy, and social justice. However, contemporary adapters resist these attacks both with overtly anti-capitalist content and through the aesthetic structures of adaptation and performance. Chapter I begins to theorize adaptation as a collaborative form. Chapter II traces resistance to the reduction of human beings to homo oeconomicus. Chapter III examines resistance to the erosion of democracy and a non-marketized public sphere. Chapter IV argues against the global inequality reproduced in economic (neo)colonialism. Chapter V claims Yael Farber's Molora exemplifies the hybrid cosmopolitanism that characterizes all adaptation. And finally, the Conclusion brings together the arguments from each chapter to demonstrate how theatrical adaptation performs a cosmopolitan cultural commonwealth in defiance of neoliberal political economy. I would like to first thank my committee members for their support, encouragement, advice, and feedback, without which this project would not have been completed. Above all, I'd like to thank Ryan Claycomb, without whom my entire academic life would probably be a shambles. Over the past six years, I could not have asked for a better mentor. I would also like to thank Katy Ryan, Lisa Weihman, and Emily Klein for their valuable chapter feedback. In addition, I appreciate the numerous discussions I've had with Dennis Allen about philosophy, theory, and psychoanalysis. Thanks to Ryan, Katy, Lisa, and Dennis for their graduate classes, which have helped shape my thinking, writing, and teaching. Additionally, thanks for the financial support from West Virginia University and the English Department, which helped make the completion of this project possible. In particular, I am grateful for the fellowship support. Further, I would like to thank Graley Herren, editor of Text & Presentation, for publishing an essay on David Greig based on an early draft of Chapter III; and Elizabeth Bradburn, editor of Comparative Drama, for publishing a forthcoming article on Christine Evans' Trojan Barbie and Femi Osofisan's Women of Owu. Personally, I would like to thank my family for their support. In particular, Andi Stout, with whom I've talked, argued, and thought through much of the political economy, psychoanalysis, and other ideas here. Without our discussions/arguments, this project would not be what it is. I'd also like to thank my mother and father, Sandy and Mike Zapkin, who always supported me in my educational endeavors, and my sister, Molly, who got the siblings' share of the scientific talent and left me more of the humanities talent. 12 Many of the plays discussed in this study were produced at not-for-profit theatres-London's National Theatre, university theatres, small regional theatres, etc. 13 Austerity is at the heart of neoliberal practice, which is why contemporary politicians in the US, the UK, and Europe, as well as financial organizations like the IMF and World Bank are so enamored of the mantra that nations must live within their means. Arguments against social programs and a social safety net-made by politicians ranging from conservatives to libertarians to center-left technocrats-consistently present austerity and budget cuts as the solution to national debts and struggling economies. For examples of this austerity drive, we need only look at the 2010 imposition of austerity measures on Greece by the European Union and IMF ("Greece's Austerity") which brought IMF austerity conditions-commonly imposed in the global south-home to Europe; or to the long campaign by Republicans and some Democrats in the US to abolish social programs like the Affordable Care Act, and to defund programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. accountable decision-making bodies to individual or corporate, unaccountable hands. Neoliberals…go further than this, though, in advocating that many ostensibly public services and functions also be placed in private profit-making hands" (12). Neoliberal philosophy allocates little room for government ownership of any service, except the most basic services for defending a nation from military invasion and enforcing voluntarily entered contracts. 27 Privatization is, however, a major challenge to democracy because private authority removes decision making power from publicly accountable institutions to private, unaccountable organizations (Chomsky 132). Putting control of services like public transportation, education, health care, communications, and prisons into private hands drives up costs for individual users, fees which might be minimal or non-existent under public ownership. Privatization decreases open and shared public spaces that once offered possibilities for communal interaction and collective discussion, which Robert McChesney identifies as a crucial structure supporting democracy. 28 Theorists like Duggan, Brown, and Chomsky all argue that democratic, public mindsets are deliberately attacked under neoliberalism to consolidate control and reshape human subjectivity as homo oeconomicus. The thesis of Brown's Undoing the Demos is, in fact, that by imposing an economic worldview, neoliberalism limits possibilities for democracy by turning subjects into human capital rather than citizens: 27 With the massive expansion of private military contractors, particularly during the US led Iraq War under George W. Bush, neoliberal governments have even begun moving to privatize responsibilities like national defense. The rise of privately owned for-profit prisons shows a similar trend in law enforcement. The military and judiciary have, however, remained among the least privatized realms of Western society. 28 Putnam's thoroughly researched study Bowling Alone provides a strong case that Americans have become increasingly disconnected since the 1970s, arguing that baby boomers, Gen-Xers, and millennials have less social capital and are less civically engaged in almost all realms of collective life than the generations that came of age from the 1930s-early 1960s. The main problem he identifies with declining social capital and connectivity is the erosion of networks of general reciprocity, which he characterizes as, "I'll do this for you without expecting anything specific back from you, in the confident expectation that someone else will do something for me down the road" (21). While this attitude characterized an older generation (and still characterizes that aging group according to Putnam's research), generations with declining social capital increasingly fragment into individuals. And as Putnam notes, "A society of many virtuous but isolated individuals is not necessarily rich in social capital" (19). As individualism rises, public engagement declines along with the norms of reciprocity that build strong communities.

Not All Dead White Men: Classics and Misogyny in the Digital Age by Donna Zuckerberg

Classical World, 2019

Reading Two Greek Refugee Plays in the Season of the Syrian Refugee Crisis

Journal of dramatic theory and criticism, 2018

Tragedy's Endurance: Performances of Greek Tragedies and Cultural Identity in Germany since 1800. By Erika Fischer-Lichte. Classical Presences. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017; pp. 480, 49 illustrations. $115 cloth, $114.99 e-book

Theatre Survey, Apr 25, 2018

Without enough attention to what may have been alienating to an eighteenthcentury audience, Schec... more Without enough attention to what may have been alienating to an eighteenthcentury audience, Schechter’s argument requires further exploration. Nonetheless, his study of these important theatrical figures through the lens of Brecht offers a fresh, critical engagement that indicates how the political spirit enlivening the dramas of Dario Fo, Vaclav Havel, David Hare, and Caryl Churchill could find its antecedent in the eighteenth century. The book offers twenty-four chapters, some very brief and playful. This structure allows Schechter to interlace conventional scholarship with fictional narratives, dramatized conversations, transcribed diaries, and comparisons to modern movements such as OccupyWall Street and figures such as Yoko Ono and Chelsea Manning. These interludes, asides, and anachronistic nods provide a Brechtian approach to historical scholarship, honoring the spirit of his source material and providing an engaging reading experience.

Dionysus Resurrected: Performances of Euripides’ The Bacchae in a Globalizing World by Erika Fischer-Lichte

Theatre Journal, 2016

Charles de Gaulle Airport: The Camp as Neoliberal Containment Site in Two Trojan Women Adaptations

Comparative Drama, 2017

I n August 1988, Mehran Karimi Nasseri arrived in Paris's Charles de Gaulle Airport. And he staye... more I n August 1988, Mehran Karimi Nasseri arrived in Paris's Charles de Gaulle Airport. And he stayed. And he stayed. He stayed until 2006, when he was taken to hospital gravely ill. Nasseri had lost his passport and the papers that were supposed to grant him refugee status in Britain. Without paperwork to prove either his identity or his right to travel to the UK, Nasseri simply remained in Terminal 1. Nasseri "lived in a lost dimension of absurd bureaucratic entanglement…[He] couldn't leave France because he did not have papers; he couldn't enter France because he did not have papers. The authorities told him to wait in the airport lounge while they sorted the paradox out. " 1 Nasseri had become stateless in 1977 after fleeing Iran, but struggled to get the necessary permissions to come to the West. When he finally made it to Europe, he found himself trapped in the liminal space of Terminal 1. Nasseri's story is a

Femi Osofisan’s Evolving Global Consciousness in Four Adaptations

Modern Drama, Dec 1, 2021

Femi Osofisan is one of contemporary theatre’s greatest adapters. His dramaturgy frequently inter... more Femi Osofisan is one of contemporary theatre’s greatest adapters. His dramaturgy frequently intertwines European texts with Yoruba songs, dances, rituals, and other cultural elements to break down ostensible cultural barriers. This article interprets Osofisan’s career as a movement from domestic to international concerns, charting the evolution of his dramaturgical approach from his early to later works to demonstrate his expanding cosmopolitan and postcolonial engagements. I argue that four of his adaptations – Who’s Afraid of Solarin? (1978), Tegonni (1994), Wesoo, Hamlet! (2003), and Women of Owu (2004) – serve as an index of Osofisan’s artistic focus as it shifts from a concentration on Nigeria’s domestic problems to expressing a Nigerian perspective on global issues. The latter three plays rely on complex and dynamic intertextuality, reflecting a postmodern self-consciousness as Osofisan metatheatrically explores the processes of performance, theatre, and art through direct interplay between his own characters and those of his Greek or Shakespearean sources. This argument challenges accounts of Osofisan’s career that emphasize an exclusive interest in Nigeria’s domestic politics, arguing instead that his drama is involved in a longstanding project of intercultural adaptation as a means of addressing international political, economic, and security problems.

Routledge eBooks, Jun 22, 2021

Compromised Epistemologies: The Ethics of Historiographic Metatheatre in Tom Stoppard’s <i>Travesties</i> and <i>Arcadia</i>

Modern Drama, Sep 1, 2016

Tom Stoppard uses historiographic metatheatre to question the efficacy of historical narratives: ... more Tom Stoppard uses historiographic metatheatre to question the efficacy of historical narratives: plays such as Travesties directly address the constructed texture of history. However, partially because the 1809 scenes in Arcadia are naturalistic, critics generally accept Arcadia as presenting a "real" history. But taking anything in Stoppard's plays at face value is a crucial mistake. Instead, we should read Arcadia as participating in a self-consciously destabilizing cultural project building a historiography of errorlike Travesties, but through a less obviously constructed historiographic metatheatrea reading that prompts us to reconsider standard narratives of Stoppard's development as a playwright of epistemological uncertainty. Part of Stoppard's joyous humour in Arcadia goes beyond satirizing Bernard and extends to the critical misreadings through which we, as critics, reproduce Bernard's unreliable thesis and, like him, risk convincing ourselves that we are right. Taking Arcadia at face value undermines the ethical imperative to uncertainty and multiplicity inherent in historiographic metatheatre, an ethic that runs through both Travesties and Arcadia.

Hellenic Common: Greek Drama and Cultural Cosmopolitanism in the Neoliberal Era

Medusa’s choice: Agency and the Medusa Myth in Matthew B.C.’s Medusa

Science Fiction Film & Television, 2023

Ovid’s Metamorphoses gave Medusa little agency, which has prompted numerous feminist reclamations... more Ovid’s Metamorphoses gave Medusa little agency, which has prompted numerous feminist reclamations of the gorgon. The tension around agency shapes Matthew B.C.’s feminist horror movie Medusa (2021), in which Carly Beacon transforms into a serpent-like creature after being bitten by a snake. Evoking simultaneously the gender-ambiguous figures of monster and final girl, Carly acquires increased power and autonomy as she kills her pimp and violent johns. However, her agency is undercut by both a lack of choice about being bitten and a failure to resolve the cultural conditions driving prostitution and drug addiction. Medusa troubles Carly’s empowerment by reinforcing her lack of choice and ignoring the failure to change larger socio-cultural conditions – raising questions about what genuine feminist liberation might mean.

De-Colonizing Cloudcuckooland

Routledge eBooks, Feb 6, 2023

Routledge eBooks, Jun 22, 2021

Hellenic Common

Hellenic Common Hellenic Common argues that theatrical adaptations of Greek tragedy exemplify the... more Hellenic Common Hellenic Common argues that theatrical adaptations of Greek tragedy exemplify the functioning of a cosmopolitan cultural commonwealth. Analyzing plays by Femi Osofisan, Moira Buffini, Marina Carr, Colin Teevan, and Yael Farber, this book shows how contemporary adapters draw tragic and mythic material from a cultural common and remake those stories for modern audiences. Phillip Zapkin theorizes a political economy of adaptation, combining both a formal reading of adaptation as an esthetic practice and a political reading of adaptation as a form of resistance. Drawing an ethical center from Kwame Anthony Appiah's work on cosmopolitanism and Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's theory of the common, Hellenic Common argues that Attic tragedy forms a cultural commonwealth from which dramatists the world over can rework, reimagine, and restage materials to envision aspirational new worlds through the arts. This study will be of great interest to students and scholars of drama, adaptation studies, literature, and neoliberalism.

Classicising Crisis: The Modern Age of Revolutions and the Greco-Roman Empire ed. by Barbara Goff and Michael Simpson

The Classical Journal, Feb 1, 2023

The Winter Garden: Sarah Ruhl's In the Next Room and the Dialectic Deconstruction of Separate Spheres

Journal of dramatic theory and criticism, Mar 1, 2022

War as Performance: Conflicts in Iraq and Political Theatricality by Lindsey Mantoan

Journal of dramatic theory and criticism, 2021

The apocalyptic event, in order to be properly apocalyptic, must in its destructive moment clarif... more

Antipodean Antiquities: Classical Receptions Down Under ed. by Marguerite Johnson

The Classical Journal, 2020

The Drama and Theatre of Sarah Ruhl by Amy Muse

Journal of dramatic theory and criticism, 2019

The Story of Myth by Sarah Iles Johnston

Classical World, 2019

Buying Thebes: Promoting a Cultural Commonwealth in Contemporary Anglophone Adaptations of Greek Tragedy

enact intercultural collaborations to reshape material from a cultural common and make that mater... more enact intercultural collaborations to reshape material from a cultural common and make that material meaningful for contemporary audiences. This collaborative ethos of drawing from shared source material undermines the logic of neoliberal late capitalism, which is premised on property ownership and individualist competition. "Buying Thebes" contributes to adaptation studies scholarship by theorizing a political economy of adaptation, combining both a formal reading of adaptation as an aesthetic practice and a political reading of adaptation as a form of resistance. Drawing an ethical center from Kwame Anthony Appiah's work on cosmopolitanism and Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's theory of the common, I argue that Attic tragedy forms a cultural commonwealth from which dramatists the world over can rework, reimagine, and restage materials to build new worlds through the arts. Neoliberalism imposes an economized market logic on all social and cultural interactions, which erodes possibilities for rounded humanity, democracy, and social justice. However, contemporary adapters resist these attacks both with overtly anti-capitalist content and through the aesthetic structures of adaptation and performance. Chapter I begins to theorize adaptation as a collaborative form. Chapter II traces resistance to the reduction of human beings to homo oeconomicus. Chapter III examines resistance to the erosion of democracy and a non-marketized public sphere. Chapter IV argues against the global inequality reproduced in economic (neo)colonialism. Chapter V claims Yael Farber's Molora exemplifies the hybrid cosmopolitanism that characterizes all adaptation. And finally, the Conclusion brings together the arguments from each chapter to demonstrate how theatrical adaptation performs a cosmopolitan cultural commonwealth in defiance of neoliberal political economy. I would like to first thank my committee members for their support, encouragement, advice, and feedback, without which this project would not have been completed. Above all, I'd like to thank Ryan Claycomb, without whom my entire academic life would probably be a shambles. Over the past six years, I could not have asked for a better mentor. I would also like to thank Katy Ryan, Lisa Weihman, and Emily Klein for their valuable chapter feedback. In addition, I appreciate the numerous discussions I've had with Dennis Allen about philosophy, theory, and psychoanalysis. Thanks to Ryan, Katy, Lisa, and Dennis for their graduate classes, which have helped shape my thinking, writing, and teaching. Additionally, thanks for the financial support from West Virginia University and the English Department, which helped make the completion of this project possible. In particular, I am grateful for the fellowship support. Further, I would like to thank Graley Herren, editor of Text & Presentation, for publishing an essay on David Greig based on an early draft of Chapter III; and Elizabeth Bradburn, editor of Comparative Drama, for publishing a forthcoming article on Christine Evans' Trojan Barbie and Femi Osofisan's Women of Owu. Personally, I would like to thank my family for their support. In particular, Andi Stout, with whom I've talked, argued, and thought through much of the political economy, psychoanalysis, and other ideas here. Without our discussions/arguments, this project would not be what it is. I'd also like to thank my mother and father, Sandy and Mike Zapkin, who always supported me in my educational endeavors, and my sister, Molly, who got the siblings' share of the scientific talent and left me more of the humanities talent. 12 Many of the plays discussed in this study were produced at not-for-profit theatres-London's National Theatre, university theatres, small regional theatres, etc. 13 Austerity is at the heart of neoliberal practice, which is why contemporary politicians in the US, the UK, and Europe, as well as financial organizations like the IMF and World Bank are so enamored of the mantra that nations must live within their means. Arguments against social programs and a social safety net-made by politicians ranging from conservatives to libertarians to center-left technocrats-consistently present austerity and budget cuts as the solution to national debts and struggling economies. For examples of this austerity drive, we need only look at the 2010 imposition of austerity measures on Greece by the European Union and IMF ("Greece's Austerity") which brought IMF austerity conditions-commonly imposed in the global south-home to Europe; or to the long campaign by Republicans and some Democrats in the US to abolish social programs like the Affordable Care Act, and to defund programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. accountable decision-making bodies to individual or corporate, unaccountable hands. Neoliberals…go further than this, though, in advocating that many ostensibly public services and functions also be placed in private profit-making hands" (12). Neoliberal philosophy allocates little room for government ownership of any service, except the most basic services for defending a nation from military invasion and enforcing voluntarily entered contracts. 27 Privatization is, however, a major challenge to democracy because private authority removes decision making power from publicly accountable institutions to private, unaccountable organizations (Chomsky 132). Putting control of services like public transportation, education, health care, communications, and prisons into private hands drives up costs for individual users, fees which might be minimal or non-existent under public ownership. Privatization decreases open and shared public spaces that once offered possibilities for communal interaction and collective discussion, which Robert McChesney identifies as a crucial structure supporting democracy. 28 Theorists like Duggan, Brown, and Chomsky all argue that democratic, public mindsets are deliberately attacked under neoliberalism to consolidate control and reshape human subjectivity as homo oeconomicus. The thesis of Brown's Undoing the Demos is, in fact, that by imposing an economic worldview, neoliberalism limits possibilities for democracy by turning subjects into human capital rather than citizens: 27 With the massive expansion of private military contractors, particularly during the US led Iraq War under George W. Bush, neoliberal governments have even begun moving to privatize responsibilities like national defense. The rise of privately owned for-profit prisons shows a similar trend in law enforcement. The military and judiciary have, however, remained among the least privatized realms of Western society. 28 Putnam's thoroughly researched study Bowling Alone provides a strong case that Americans have become increasingly disconnected since the 1970s, arguing that baby boomers, Gen-Xers, and millennials have less social capital and are less civically engaged in almost all realms of collective life than the generations that came of age from the 1930s-early 1960s. The main problem he identifies with declining social capital and connectivity is the erosion of networks of general reciprocity, which he characterizes as, "I'll do this for you without expecting anything specific back from you, in the confident expectation that someone else will do something for me down the road" (21). While this attitude characterized an older generation (and still characterizes that aging group according to Putnam's research), generations with declining social capital increasingly fragment into individuals. And as Putnam notes, "A society of many virtuous but isolated individuals is not necessarily rich in social capital" (19). As individualism rises, public engagement declines along with the norms of reciprocity that build strong communities.

Not All Dead White Men: Classics and Misogyny in the Digital Age by Donna Zuckerberg

Classical World, 2019

Reading Two Greek Refugee Plays in the Season of the Syrian Refugee Crisis

Journal of dramatic theory and criticism, 2018

Tragedy's Endurance: Performances of Greek Tragedies and Cultural Identity in Germany since 1800. By Erika Fischer-Lichte. Classical Presences. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017; pp. 480, 49 illustrations. $115 cloth, $114.99 e-book

Theatre Survey, Apr 25, 2018

Without enough attention to what may have been alienating to an eighteenthcentury audience, Schec... more Without enough attention to what may have been alienating to an eighteenthcentury audience, Schechter’s argument requires further exploration. Nonetheless, his study of these important theatrical figures through the lens of Brecht offers a fresh, critical engagement that indicates how the political spirit enlivening the dramas of Dario Fo, Vaclav Havel, David Hare, and Caryl Churchill could find its antecedent in the eighteenth century. The book offers twenty-four chapters, some very brief and playful. This structure allows Schechter to interlace conventional scholarship with fictional narratives, dramatized conversations, transcribed diaries, and comparisons to modern movements such as OccupyWall Street and figures such as Yoko Ono and Chelsea Manning. These interludes, asides, and anachronistic nods provide a Brechtian approach to historical scholarship, honoring the spirit of his source material and providing an engaging reading experience.

Dionysus Resurrected: Performances of Euripides’ The Bacchae in a Globalizing World by Erika Fischer-Lichte

Theatre Journal, 2016

Charles de Gaulle Airport: The Camp as Neoliberal Containment Site in Two Trojan Women Adaptations

Comparative Drama, 2017

I n August 1988, Mehran Karimi Nasseri arrived in Paris's Charles de Gaulle Airport. And he staye... more I n August 1988, Mehran Karimi Nasseri arrived in Paris's Charles de Gaulle Airport. And he stayed. And he stayed. He stayed until 2006, when he was taken to hospital gravely ill. Nasseri had lost his passport and the papers that were supposed to grant him refugee status in Britain. Without paperwork to prove either his identity or his right to travel to the UK, Nasseri simply remained in Terminal 1. Nasseri "lived in a lost dimension of absurd bureaucratic entanglement…[He] couldn't leave France because he did not have papers; he couldn't enter France because he did not have papers. The authorities told him to wait in the airport lounge while they sorted the paradox out. " 1 Nasseri had become stateless in 1977 after fleeing Iran, but struggled to get the necessary permissions to come to the West. When he finally made it to Europe, he found himself trapped in the liminal space of Terminal 1. Nasseri's story is a

Femi Osofisan’s Evolving Global Consciousness in Four Adaptations

Modern Drama, Dec 1, 2021

Femi Osofisan is one of contemporary theatre’s greatest adapters. His dramaturgy frequently inter... more Femi Osofisan is one of contemporary theatre’s greatest adapters. His dramaturgy frequently intertwines European texts with Yoruba songs, dances, rituals, and other cultural elements to break down ostensible cultural barriers. This article interprets Osofisan’s career as a movement from domestic to international concerns, charting the evolution of his dramaturgical approach from his early to later works to demonstrate his expanding cosmopolitan and postcolonial engagements. I argue that four of his adaptations – Who’s Afraid of Solarin? (1978), Tegonni (1994), Wesoo, Hamlet! (2003), and Women of Owu (2004) – serve as an index of Osofisan’s artistic focus as it shifts from a concentration on Nigeria’s domestic problems to expressing a Nigerian perspective on global issues. The latter three plays rely on complex and dynamic intertextuality, reflecting a postmodern self-consciousness as Osofisan metatheatrically explores the processes of performance, theatre, and art through direct interplay between his own characters and those of his Greek or Shakespearean sources. This argument challenges accounts of Osofisan’s career that emphasize an exclusive interest in Nigeria’s domestic politics, arguing instead that his drama is involved in a longstanding project of intercultural adaptation as a means of addressing international political, economic, and security problems.

Routledge eBooks, Jun 22, 2021

Compromised Epistemologies: The Ethics of Historiographic Metatheatre in Tom Stoppard’s <i>Travesties</i> and <i>Arcadia</i>

Modern Drama, Sep 1, 2016

Tom Stoppard uses historiographic metatheatre to question the efficacy of historical narratives: ... more Tom Stoppard uses historiographic metatheatre to question the efficacy of historical narratives: plays such as Travesties directly address the constructed texture of history. However, partially because the 1809 scenes in Arcadia are naturalistic, critics generally accept Arcadia as presenting a "real" history. But taking anything in Stoppard's plays at face value is a crucial mistake. Instead, we should read Arcadia as participating in a self-consciously destabilizing cultural project building a historiography of errorlike Travesties, but through a less obviously constructed historiographic metatheatrea reading that prompts us to reconsider standard narratives of Stoppard's development as a playwright of epistemological uncertainty. Part of Stoppard's joyous humour in Arcadia goes beyond satirizing Bernard and extends to the critical misreadings through which we, as critics, reproduce Bernard's unreliable thesis and, like him, risk convincing ourselves that we are right. Taking Arcadia at face value undermines the ethical imperative to uncertainty and multiplicity inherent in historiographic metatheatre, an ethic that runs through both Travesties and Arcadia.

Hellenic Common: Greek Drama and Cultural Cosmopolitanism in the Neoliberal Era