What are the contexts (political, social, legal, cultural) of theatre censorship in twenty-first-century Europe? Given the abolition of state-sanctioned and institutional forms of stage censorship in the late twentieth century, the prevalence of authoritarian and populist politics, and the escalation of so-called ‘culture wars’, in what ways and to what extent does stage censorship manifest and proliferate today? How does censorship respond (or not) to governmental, economic, moral, and religious circumstances? And how have theatre-makers in Europe contested or countered censorial prohibitions in the recent past?This edited collection is the first pan-European study of contemporary theatre censorship. An international range of scholars assess how new forms of censorship operate to silence artists and control performances; they explore how theatre artists respond to constraints placed upon their work across territories, and analyse how age-old political, religious, and moral taboos impact on theatrical creation and reception. Readers are invited to consider not only the varied mechanisms of censorship, including its more covert iterations, but also what is censored, when, how, and why, particularly in relation to the sensitive issues of religion, race, sexuality, and nationalism. By focusing on the work of key European theatre practitioners, as well as significant productions and performances, contributors reflect on the impact of censorship on artistic policies and cultural activity, and the forms of protest mobilized against it.Introduction Anne Etienne and Chris MegsonDOI: 10.47788/THTM4731PART 1: FORMS AND SOURCES OF CENSORSHIP Intervention 1 – Vicki Ann Cremona and Marco Galea, Capturing Space: Crashing Down the Gates of the Maltese UtopiaDOI: 10.47788/DXCK2330 Chapter 1. Milena Dragicevic Sesic and Aleksandra Jovićević, Voices from Semi-peripheries: Pressure, Self-censorship, and Micropolitics of Resistance in the Western BalkansDOI: 10.47788/MBJH9642 Chapter 2. Alex Trustrum-Thomas, The Emperor’s New Clothes: Ideology and Censorship in Contemporary Russian TheatreDOI: 10.47788/KHBJ9609 Chapter 3. Anne Etienne and Lisa Fitzpatrick, Risings and Cancelling: Implicit Censorship on a Free Irish StageDOI: 10.47788/DUMT2156PART 2: GHOSTS OF THE PAST Intervention 2 – Andrea Tompa, Censorship in Hungary: Comedy, Silence, and SubversionDOI: 10.47788/JENC2443Chapter 4. Denis Poniž, Nothing New on the Eastern Front: Censorship in Contemporary SloveniaDOI: 10.47788/WHXD7915 Chapter 5. Agnieszka Jakimiak, Un-Divine Comedy. Remains and Self-Censorship as Work-In- Progress in Poland DOI: 10.47788/SLFB7672Chapter 6. Andrew Holden, Opera Censorship in Europe – Production, Circulation, and Reception in a Transnational MarketDOI: 10.47788/WAUE9231Intervention 3 – Lonneke van Heugten, The Tenacity of Tradition: Performativity in the Dutch Black Pete ControversyDOI: 10.47788/CYXY9391PART 3: STAGING TABOOS Intervention 4 – Roaa Ali, Racialized Censorship in the Age of “Culture Wars”DOI: 10.47788/DXIE9191Chapter 7. Chris Megson, Images of Protest: Religion, Theatre, and CensorshipDOI: 10.47788/HLHS2992Chapter 8. Olga Kolokytha, Yulia Belinskaya, and Matina Magkou, Religion and Politics: Silencing Greek Theatre in the Twenty-First CenturyDOI: 10.47788/LHYH5122 Chapter 9. Duncan Wheeler, Booing and Banning: Freedom and Prohibition in Spain’s “National Fiesta”DOI: 10.47788/TKHZ1641 Intervention 5 – Hannah Probst, Play on the Periphery: Irrational Queerness as Resistance to Censorship in Gestalta’s Shibari Performance ArtDOI: 10.47788/NMMG9395
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