Translating Austerity: Theatrical responses to the financial crisis

Abstract

The imposition of austerity measures on economies struggling to achieve financial growth has underscored the contemporary social and economic landscape of our times. In this chapter, it is the theatricalization of austerity that forms O’Thomas’s analysis of twenty-first-century drama. After providing an overview of plays that were conceived as direct attempts to explain and interrogate the financial crisis, the chapter investigates the work of both Theatre Uncut and the Royal Court Theatre’s season of new work originating from Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain (known collectively as PIIGS). Through the presentation of austerity on the stage, O’Thomas highlights the critical role that theatre translation plays in interrogating notions of both community and nationalism.