Zoltán Imre

Staging the Nation: Changing Concepts of a National Theatre in Europe

In this article, Zoltán Imre investigates the major changes in the concept of a national theatre, from the early debates in Hamburg in 1767 to the 2006 opening of the National Theatre of . While in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the notion of a national theatre was regarded in most of Western Europe as a means of promoting national – or even imperial – integration, in Eastern Europe, the debates about and later the realization of national theatres often took place within the context of and against oppressive imperiums. But in both parts of Europe the realization of a national theatre was utilized to represent a unified nation in a virtual way, its role being to maintain a single and fixed national identity and a homogeneous and dominant national culture. In present-day Scotland, however, the notion of a national theatre has changed again, to service a diverse and multicultural nation. Zoltán Imre received his PhD from Queen Mary College, University of London, and is now a lecturer in the Department of Comparative Literature and Culture at Eötvös Loránd University, , co-editor of the Hungarian theatre magazine Theatron, and dramaturg at Mozgó Ház Társulás (Moving House Theatre Company) and Természetes Vészek Kollektíva (Collective of Natural Disasters). His publications include Transfer and Translation: Intercultural Dialogues (co-editor, 2002),Theatre and Theatricality (2003), Transillumination: Hungarian Theatre in a European Context (editor, 2004), and On the Border of Theatre and Sociology (co-editor, 2005).

As we approach the opening night of the National national theatre from the early debates on , a long-awaited moment for the subject in the eighteenth century through the theatre community and audiences of Scotland the establishment of the Hungarian National is about to arrive. . . . [The NTS] has been a much discussed and debated concept within Scotland, Theatre in 1837 until the opening of the NTS led by some committed and visionary individuals in 2006. who have been campaigning for years.1

THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR of the National Different Concepts – the Same Institution? Theatre of Scotland, Vicky Featherstone, Investigating the formation of national launched the NTS with these words in an theatres and their relation to cultural legiti- article entitled ‘Dream Theatre Becomes mation in her book The National Stage, Loren Reality’ on 19 February 2006. The only major Kruger correctly points out that cultural institution formed since the devo- lution of Scotland, the establishment of NTS the notion of staging the nation, of representing as was supported by the well as reflecting the people in the theatre, of constituting or even standing in for an absent or and the Scottish Executive, connected to vari- imperfect national identity, emerges in the Euro - ous symbolic and real territories, institutional pean Enlightenment and takes concrete shape relations, and power structures – (national) with the Revolutionary fêtes.2 theatre and (national) politics, as well as (national) identity. In connection with the After that general statement, however, Kruger analysis of these territories, I shall inves- focuses only on a phenomenon she calls tigate the major changes in the concept of a ‘theatrical nationhood’ which ‘manifested ntq 24:1 (february 2008) © cambridge university press doi: 10.1017/s0266464x08000079 75 itself fully in the course of the nineteenth cen- the ambition to create or found a German national tury with the rise of the mass party politics, theatre, could not have been achieved at that time, “universal” (male) suffrage, and the demand in the sense that such a company could not have been representative of a defined nation within a of the people for legitimate representation as recognized country, as Germany was not united 3 protagonists on the political stage’. As a until 1872.12 result, she focused her research in time from the 1870suntil the 1980s, in space from France Nevertheless, the Hamburg National Theatre to England and the USA, and in subject was one of the first attempts to create a pub- ‘comparing English, French, and American lic theatre from ‘below’ by the (Hamburg) advocates of national popular theatre at citizens, and where the (German-speaking) moments of crisis or critical success’.4 people could be symbolically represented on In France and the USA, she dealt with the (and off) stage and regarded as a nation. realizations of a national theatre for those groups without proper representation in the legitimate theatres, such as the French Théâtre The Hof- und Nationaltheater in Vienna National Populaire for the ‘urban working Following the practice established partly by class’,5 and the Federal Theatre Project (1935– the French Sun King in the 1680s with the 39)for ‘the [working-class]people across the Comédie-Française,13 and partly by Frederick United States’.6 By contrast, in England she the Great of Prussia in the 1740s in Berlin,14 it dealt with a case when the represen tation was the centralized power which established of the entire nation (or even imperium) was a national theatre from ‘above’ when Joseph II narrowed to the English movement for ‘a renamed the Viennese Burgtheater as the Hof- [British] “National House” for the [mainly und Nationaltheater in 1776.15 Nominally English-educated] middle class’.7 Hence, she directed by the Monarch himself, the execu - investigated the late realizations of national tive directorate of the theatre was led by a theatres in functioning and independent committee (Versammlung) of the leading Western states when their imperial context actors, and the members of its company were was lost (France and England), and when it called ‘court players’ (Hofschauspieler). The was in development (USA).8 main aim of the theatre was to propagate In other countries of Europe, however, German-speaking theatre and the German national theatres were established much language by performing German dramas and earlier and with different purposes.9 Among foreign dramas in German translations.16 the first was the Hamburg theatre of 1766, As part of his language reform, an attempt when twelve Hamburg citizens decided to in the 1780s to establish German instead of establish a consortium to support the local Latin as the official language of adminis- theatre financially. They invited as drama- tration within the entire empire,17 Joseph II turge the playwright Gotthold Ephraim utilized the symbolic functions of the theatre. Lessing, who proposed that ‘an established His aim was not only to establish territorial theatre with a properly conceived literary integrity within his imperium, but also to programme might itself help to create a unite the multicultural territories and multi- nation’.10 As a result, the Hamburg theatre lingual ethnic groups in a centralized, mod- was utilized as a source of German cultural ernized, and fully bureaucratized civil state. identity, and as an institution propagating As a result, the monarch’s plan to establish a civic morals and values to express a desire national theatre in the capital can be reg - for the unity of the separate small German arded partly as a noble gesture, in opening (-speaking) states, as finally achieved by his private court theatre to his subjects to Prussia during the later nineteenth century.11 enhance his own power, and partly as a sym - Due to disorganization, internal disagree- bolic representation of a unified imperium ment, and poor public support, however, it under the rule of the Austrian monarchy.18 ended in financial disaster within a year. As The notion of a national theatre was not T. James Reed pointed out, its basic problem, only used by certain social groups to repre-

76 sent themselves on stage, but also regarded and practices.25 As a result, a nation can thus as a means for the integration of an entire be best viewed as an imagined virtual com- nation, as in France, Denmark, Sweden, and munity. For the creation, maintenance, and Germany; or even an empire, as in Russia, self-definition of such a community, it needs Austria, and Great Britain, either from to manifest links between the physically ‘below’ or ‘above’. The debates on and later separated individuals by representing their the realizations of national theatres, how- common elements and their difference from ever, took also place within the context of and other peoples and communities. against oppressive imperiums such as those Kruger’s concept of ‘theatrical nation hood’ in Poland, , Romania, Croatia, Nor - is thus absolutely relevant here, as the means way, Serbia, Ireland, and in some respects of representation (i.e., of staging) are essen- Scotland.19 In these countries, the estab- tially theatrical. Hence, the represen tation of lishment of a national theatre was regarded a nation as an imagined virtual community is as an (idealistic) expression of political, cul- theatrical both onstage – in the (national) tural, and economic unity and indepen- theatre (especially) – and offstage, in the vari- dence. The national theatre was to represent ous performative manoeuvres of everyday the often unified image of the nation, and to life (parliamentary debate, strikes, recep tions, maintain an (often single and fixed) national dinners, opening ceremonies, and so on). identity and an (often homogeneous and Apart from the inherent representational domi nant) national culture.20 character of a nation as an imagined virtual com munity, Anderson’s notion has other ad - vantages. As Jen Harvie has recently argued Identity and Theatre as Contested Sites in her book Staging the UK, Anderson’s term In the countries of Europe where the notion ‘imagined’ is resonant in at least two ways. of national theatre has emerged, it has been First, it emphasizes that ‘people’s sense of situated alongside the formation and/or community is produced through cultural (re)formation of nationhood and the nation- practices that are creative and artistic’; and state.21 The problem with the nation and its second, his phrase ‘conveys the impression (re)formation, however, derives from the fact, that the practice of imagining is largely or as Benedict Anderson correctly remarks, that entirely volitional’.26 ‘it is an imagined political community – and As a result, national communities are imagined as both inherently limited and sov- under constant construction, and their iden- ereign’.22 A nation forms a real community tities are ‘culturally produced, dynamic, and only in imagination, as only its members can . . . inherently troubled’.27 As national iden- imagine that it can be confined by nature as a tities are constructed, they can be changed sovereign entity. and (re)formed. From here, however, Harvie easily jumps to the conclusion that due to the The members of even the smallest nation will fact that national identities can be imagined never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of by various people or groups, ‘authority is each lives the image of their communion.23 necessarily dispersed from the normal centres of power’.28 The problem with this Nations have to be imagined in particular formulation is that even today the means and selective styles, which achieve tangible and apparatus of representation are not equ- and symbolic forms in the traditions, muse- ally accessible to everyone. Therefore, autho- ums, galleries, monuments, ceremonies, and rity might be dispersed, but the normal other practices by which the images of their centres of power still have vital roles and communion are constructed.24 functions in the (re)construction and legitim- In The Body of Spirit, Allucquére Rosanne ization of national identities. Hence, identity (Sandy) Stone called those communities is a contested site. virtual where the physically separated mem- The (re)formation of a nation as imagined bers are connected through mutual beliefs virtual community is even more complicated

77 since it is often thought to be based on a the spontaneous and privately lived-through collective identity supposedly shared by individual memories are transformed into most of its members. Collective identity and regarded as the collective histories of a needs to have a (mutually formed) past. The nation. past, however, does not exist in itself but, as The sites of historical remembrance can be the German cultural historian Jan Assmann manifested in various forms as institutions, rightly claimed, ‘the past comes into being at topographical places, objects, cultural crea- all, when one gets into contact with it’.29 The tions, social habits, and even buildings. These past has to be (re)constructed consciously symbolic, real, or even virtual sites are uti- and (of course) unconsciously through the lized not only for remembering but as sites selective process of remembering and forget- on and in which cultural identities can be ting in a retrospective way. presented and confirmed in the present and However, as the now neglected memory projected onto the future by performative researcher Maurice Halbwachs noted, though manoeuvres referring to various but un- it is always the individual who remembers, stable symbolic meanings. the past is also constructed collectively and Architecture has always been utilized for socially by collective memory. Memory is these purposes. Investigating kinds of theatre active backwards and forwards, because spaces and their meanings, the theatre his- memory does not only reconstruct the past, torian Marvin Carlson argued that: but organizes how to experience present and future.30 As the past can neither be ‘eternally’ as ‘urban ideologies’ change, the meaning of the erased (i.e., as if it happened) nor urban environment as a whole changes as well, a never change reflected in the ‘repertory of architectural ‘authentically’ reconstructed (i.e., as it really objects’. New normative types . . . replace aban- happened), it is re-constructed, re-ordered doned types . . . representing not only new urban 33 and re-told again and again from and in the activities but entire new social organizations. present by various people and groups. Hence, the past is not a single and fixed In the changing repertory of architectural entity, but rather the representations of the objects in the history of Western culture, past are constantly realized constructions the theatre is one of the most persistent. Its that are always utilized for the present. The stability, however, ‘does not mean that its different representations of the otherwise urban role is stable, on the contrary, that it attainable and unrecoverable past serve as has been able to accommodate itself to a legitimation, reinforcement for, and some- variety of urban functions’.34 times symbols of the lack of the present, and In her article on the Rose Theatre in a basis for the future besides. As these rep- Elizabethan London, Peggy Phelan clearly resentations are constructed by different col- demonstrated not only the various urban lective identities, different people or groups functions of theatre in the seventeenth and in and different communities exist even within the twentieth centuries but, examining the a (seemingly unified and homogeneous) underlying connections between the various nation. Hence, the nation is a contested site. political agendas, power systems, and cul- tural performances at play in and around the 1989 excavation of the theatre, she revealed Sites of Historical Remembrance how the past was re-constructed according Though Assmann noted that memory needs to present political and cultural needs, locations and has a tendency towards claims, and fears.35 In this way, she showed localization,31 it was the French historian that theatre as institution, phenomenon, or Pierre Nora who argued that, for remem- even building can be well utilized for accom- bering the past, a community needs certain modating a real community as the represen- means, which he called ‘mnemonic sites’ tation of a virtual one; where collective 32 (lieux de mémoire). The collective creation of identities can be tested, formed and mani- these sites is the result of a process in which fested; and where the various images and

78 memories of the past can be transformed into having obvious practical, modernizing func- the present and even projected to anticipate tions, were seen as monuments to express the future.36 Hence, theatre is also a con- the power and values of the nation by means tested site. of their size, design, ornament, and location. These newly established institutions in Pest- Buda were seen as sites for cultural perfor- 1837 The Hungarian Theatre of Pest, mances through which Hungarian national Eric J. Hobsbawm argues that the formation of prestige and pride as well as a longed-for a nation-state in nineteenth-century Europe independence could be articulated. was, in practice, connected to an historically By the last quarter of the eighteenth accepted and/or territorially indepen dent century, Pest-Buda enjoyed a growing eco- country with administrative institutions, an nomic significance, and it was transformed aggressive political practice, an entrenched into one of the administrative centres of the cultural elite, a national literature, and an Austrian government. By 1835, its popula- administrative language.37 Without an inde - tion was about sixty-seven thousand, out of pendent country and administrative institu- which only around a fifth were Hungarians. tions, people were supposed to supply their The rest were Germans and those of various legitimation through cultural practices and Slavic backgrounds.42 Though Pest-Buda semiotized institutions. In the Hungarian con- was by that time recognized by the contem- text of the late eighteenth and early nine- porary Hungarians as their capital, its legi- teenth centuries, these cultural practices and timate culture and widely spoken language semiotized institutions were extremely im- were Austrian/German.43 That situa tion was portant, since Hungary was part of the Habs- culturally manifested in the fact that, besides burg Empire.38 the various German newspapers, in 1812 a By around 1810, the so-called ‘neologist’ new German-language theatre (Pesti Német movement recognized the Hungarian langu- Színház – German Theatre of Pest) opened in age as a possible creative link among mem- Pest with a capacity of three thousand five bers of the national community. As a result, hundred, while another had already been the leading Hungarian writers, philologists, operating in Buda since 1789.44 and thinkers modernized Hungarian from In that context, a Hungarian theatre could ‘above’ to express adequately contemporary not function merely as a business venture ideas of everyday life. Language and then because of the low number of its would-be the development of national literature func- spectators. Since its inception, the project of a tioned as one of the basic providers of the Hungarian theatre was thus dependent on mythical national past and a desired future.39 politics, especially national politics, not only As Latin was the main language of adminis- for its legitimation, but for its financial tration,40 German in business, and French in security.45 In exchange, it was obviously the salons of the aristocracy, the renewal of utilized for political purposes. Although not Hungarian and formation of a national litera- all political implications could be articulated ture were also seen as signs of passive resis- clearly in the debates because of political tance against Austrian political oppr ession oppression and censorship, they emerged and Austrian, German, and French cultural symbolically both in literature and on the influences.41 stage, as was clearly expressed in the very Apart from modernizing the national lan- name of the new theatre: Pesti Magyar guage and establishing national literature as Színház (Hungarian Theatre of Pest). ‘key factors’ for ‘national survival’, cultural Apart from its possible (disguised or and civil institutions were transformed into open) political purposes, the theatre was mnemonic sites. Institutions such as the regarded also as a cultural institution. The Academy of Sciences (1825), the National renewal of the Hungarian language was seen Museum and Library (1808), and even a as crucial in terms of everyday life and of bridge across the Danube (1842–48), besides ‘national survival’, so the theatre was also

79 employed to create, spread, and maintain the or a pyramid. Therefore, besides its political, public usage of the national language by cultural, social, and moral functions, the playing translated, adapted, and original construction of a theatre might have implicit Hungarian dramas, and later in establishing ontological functions in face of death. In this a national repertoire. One of the theatre’s sense, a theatre building itself can be seen as main proposed functions was to create a a solid monument for the past and of the national tragedy for articulating the repre- present. At the same time, it can also be sentations of the once-famous Hungarian regarded as a site where, remembering the past, projecting this towards the desire for past, ‘the survivors’ – the members of the Hungarian independence and dominance nation – can ‘create identity for themselves’, 48 over the monarchy’s smaller ethnic groups and where its founders’ transitory personali - (including Serbs, Croats, Romanians, Slovaks, ties can be manifested in stone, transforming and Slovenes). them into physical and visible manifesta - These political and cultural functions were tions through which their temporality can clearly connected to moral and social ones. hope to survive. For contemporaries, the purpose of theatre As the absolutist European rulers of the was also to establish and represent the char- Enlightenment assumed a correlation bet- acteristics of the ‘good’ Hungarian citizen, ween regularized city spaces and an orderly training the spectators for the roles they were society, they also revitalized the concept of to play in a reformed and modernized capit- theatre as a public monument. While theatre alist society while maintaining their national was regarded as a private possession in the character and identity. Theatre was also to medieval and Renaissance concepts of space, present the appropriate costumes, habits, its signifying possibilities as a public monu- and behaviours of the day and to propagate ment were now recognized and its possible actual political and social views through con- cultural and political implications to publicize temporary Hungarian and foreign dramas.46 a founder’s fame and name were utilized by Consequently, since the national theatre was the absolutist rulers of the Enlightenment imagined as a multi-functional national insti- kingdoms of the seventeenth and eighteenth tution, and was regarded as a public monu- centuries.49 ment, it was extremely important who built The first such theatrical monument was it, where, and when. the Berlin Opera House of Frederick the Great in 1745. In order to elevate his minor king- dom to international prominence, Frederick Anxieties about Building a Theatre rebuilt his capital as a rationalized modern In the article already cuted, Peggy Phelan, city with great vistas, squares, and public investigating the connection between archi- buildings, which included a new palace, an tecture and theatre, referred to Denis Hollier, academy, and an opera house.50 Frederick’s who argued that architecture was motivated efforts to rearrange a whole city centre can in by a desire to forestall and forget death. fact demonstrate that architecture is not only Hollier pointed out that connected to warding off decay and death, but also to express, publicize, and visualize the monument and the pyramid are where they power. As Marvin Carlson observed, ‘har - are to cover up a place, to fill in a void: the one left moniously constructed districts would call by death. Death must not appear: it must not take place: let tombs cover it up and take its place. . . . to mind the power of their author, standing One plays dead that death will not come.47 out by the degree to which reason and reason alone determined their features’ – order, From this, Phelan rightly concludes that archi- sym metry, and focus.51 tecture plays a significant role in the strategy By the end of the eighteenth century, with which one can outlast the temporal theatre as a public monument, with its cul- decomposition of one’s body by displacing tural, political meanings, was a firmly estab- its terror to a solid monument such as a tomb lished feature of new urban design in the

80 rebuilt European cities. Around 1800 that Emperor dissolved the feudal assembly and movement reached Pest-Buda, where Viceroy began to persecute leaders of the reformist Joseph, the highest public dignitary and the opposition.54 representative of the Emperor in Hungary, The realization of a national theatre bet- established the Királyi Szépíto˝ Bizottság ween 1790 and 1837 expressed the struggle (Royal Architectural Committee) which, in for power among the Hungarians, and a recon structing the city centre, built the symbolic resistance to the Austrian monarchy German Theatre of Pest (1808–12). and its representatives in Hungary. But this was complicated by prejudices against the theatre as an immoral institution. Finally, the The Struggle for Power through Theatre Theatre Committee of Pest county built, The Hungarians also recognized the cultural, supported, and controlled the theatre, which social, moral, and political potential of the thus represented the power of the landed theatre as early as the 1780s.52 In 1830, the gentry (középnemesség), which rose to power feudal assembly laid down the basic prin- in Pest and other counties and utilized the ciples of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences theatre and its programme to propagate civil and declared the establishment of a national reforms and liberal national political views. theatre for the promotion of the Hungarian For these reforms and views, centred on the language. In 1831, Pest county formed a idea of extending the nation to incorporate Committee for Promoting Hungarian and the non-nobilities, a theatre could be well asked one of the leading reformers, Count utilized, because it was designed to see and István Széchenyi, for a detailed plan for a to be seen at the same time. permanent theatre. At that time, the theatre was the only According to Széchenyi, in his Magyar játék- medium with the capacity to bring together színrül (On the Hungarian Playhouse, 1832), the various strata of society – members of the the theatre should be a national institution, various classes whatever their occupation, run by a corporation, supported by the wealth, social status, or gender – on and feudal assembly, located in the city centre by offstage, and to display them in such a way the Danube, and its building should follow a as to be seen and recognized together as a Parisian model.53 The leaders of Pest county nation. For the Hungarian poet and dram- were not entirely satisfied with this plan atist Mihály Vörösmarty, the spectators of the because they wanted to keep the theatre opening night were transformed into a real within their own control. In August 1835, community representing a virtual commu- Pest county began the construction of a tem- nity – the nation: porary building. In October 1835, Széchenyi, who had not given up his plan for a per- The audience . . . was immersed in its clear patriotic manent theatre supported by the feudal feeling . . . and in its silence there were amaze- ment, deep emotions, and the dignity of a self- assembly, received as a gift from the Viceroy 55 the area proposed in his book, while the city respected nation. of Pest announced a new plan with a third location. For Vörösmarty, then, the theatre, especially By the Viceroy’s instruction the city’s plan the auditorium, was supposed to represent was abandoned and, in February 1836, Pest the united body of the desired nation. At the county postponed its own construction for same time, however, it also made visible the four weeks in order to leave time for the social and economic divisions articulated in feudal assembly to authorize a permanent the separate places, entrances, and exits for theatre for the nation. The Upper House, the different groups within the building.56 however, refused it, so in March 1836 Pest In this respect, for contemporaries the estab- county resumed construction. The county’s lishment of the theatre was seen as a site for project received nationwide moral and later struggle over social, political, and moral domi- financial support only in 1837, when the nance and control, and thus it was formed

81 along the line of power and legitima tion. poraries as a national grand récit, this piece What representations would be regarded as was also concerned with Árpád and his worthy of display on its stage and which territorial fights.61 To retrieve his legacy from would be hidden? Whose ideas were to be the great Hun King, Attila, Árpád attacks officially presented and whose excluded? and defeats Zalán, a Bulgarian prince, and Whose stories and histories would be remem- conquers the territory of (the later so-called bered and whose forgotten? What images of historical) Hungary. social, political, and cultural life would be As Árpád’s historical figure was connected projected and which would be mar ginalized? to the great Hun kingdom, he was supposed Which voices would be heard and which to conjure up images of a mythological past silenced? Who would represent whom and to serve as the origin of the contemporary on what basis? desire for Hungarian independence; and through these intertextual references the performance could be seen as the re-creation Performing Theatre – Opening Night of the once-famous mythological Hungary Peggy Phelan has also observed that archi- on stage62 and as the historic legitimation for tecture is implicitly linked to theatre, ‘to the contemporary nationalist claims to an indep- art of disguise. Theatre itself is the space in en dent national state in the Kárpát basin. which death is made to play, to be a play.’57 Apart from recycling the images of the But besides its political, cultural, social, and Hungarian mythological past for nationalist moral functions, the construction of a theatre purposes, the performance of the Prologue is supposed to have an implicit ontological was also utilized to legitimize theatre as a function in the face not only of death but of useful institution for spreading language, life. moral values, social customs, and liberal civil On 22 August 1837, the opening perfor - reforms.63 This legitimation of theatre was mance of the Pesti Magyar Színház played manifested in the last scene, in which the with death and made it part of the play. It national hero Árpád defends the Actress, was an evening of celebration, including Hun- symbolizing the theatrical profession, from garian dances, music, songs, and a melo- various ghosts (Poverty, Envy, Hunger, 58 drama, Belizár (Belisarius, 1828), translated Shame, Desire, etc.). In that scene, at least from the German.59 At the very beginning of two interrelated topics are worth considera- this festive evening, in a poetic fantasy of the tion: the theatre as a suspect institution, and Prológus: Árpád ébredése (Prologue: Árpád’s the identification of the theatrical profession Awakening), Árpád the Conqueror, the mytho- with a female subject. logical leader who established an indepen- dent, imperial Hungarian kingdom, and the first Hungarian dynasty – those necessary Immorality – and Femininity criteria for national legitimation, as described In his book The Antitheatrical Prejudice, Jonas by Hobsbawm and Assmann – was awak- Barish points out that: ened on stage by a Ghost for the real and 60 symbolic opening of the theatre. In the first at least as far as from Plato’s time, theatre has scene of the Prologue, set in a graveyard, been suspect because it is mimetic . . . and so it is Árpád’s awakening from his tomb could deceitful, unscrupulous, and hypocritical. It is also 64 obviously be interpreted as the awakening of ostentatious, exhibitionist, and lacks modesty. the Hungarian nation by and for the theatre. Supporting that interpretation, Árpád’s Expressed by the ghosts of the Prologue, these historical context and its legitimizing power anti-theatrical prejudices appeared also as were emphasized by the Prologue’s inter- the claims against the national theatre in the textuality. It was written by Mihály Vörö- late eighteenth and early nineteenth centu- smarty, the author of the epochal Zalán futása ries. The nobility and clergy regarded theatre (Zalán’s Flight, 1825). Regarded by contem- as an immoral institution, based on unacc-

82 eptable exhibitionism and corporeal desires, patriarchal relationship within the family which stirred the audience’s attentions and was maintained by the power of Árpád’s emotions, and taught its subjects how to mythical figure. deceive. At the same time, due to the dangers of identification, the members of the audi- ence were subjected to manipulation as they Representing the Nation lost their own ability to judge and form an In addition to strengthening gender stereo- independent opinion. types, the theatre also expressed the ideas of In their claims, as well as in the Prologue, liberal reformist politicians. In the third the suspicious character of theatre was often scene, set on the street in front of the theatre, connected to the identification of the theatre characters from various social strata – an Old profession with a female subject. Ruth Padel Man, Young Men, Father and his Son, suggested that the ‘idea of femaleness’ is Women from the Aristocracy, Peasants, and intrinsic to Western theatre: ‘more youngsters, ladies, and every other kind of peoples’67 – appeared, and all then Character, mask, persona: all those theatrical con - entered into the theatre building. The image cepts were façades, invented by men using an symbolized the construction of the theatre as idea of femaleness, its made-upness. . . . Like actors, women are ‘made up’. They play a part in a consequence of national co-operation and 68 order to please.65 contribution. A slightly problematic element, however, Michael Mangan strengthens this view in was that there were no aristocratic male pointing out that theatre and acting are regu - characters or clergy on stage. Their absence larly associated with those attributes which might refer to the fact that the members of the fall on the feminine side of the ideological higher aristocracy expressing their loyalty to binary divide: illusion, display, emotion, the the Habsburg monarchy had voted against the body. establishment of the permanent Hungarian theatre in Pest in the Upper House of the By this process theatre becomes culturally en- assembly in 1836. From their point of view, coded as feminine or female: not just . . . because however, the lack of repre sentation on the of its association with ‘make-up’ but because it stage of the national theatre might be seen as falls on one side of this larger binary divide – the culturally conditioned structure of oppositions a sign of their exclusion from the theatre, and which is itself an instrument of masculine power even from the ‘body’ of the nation. and control.66 Apart from that interpretation, the scene also articulated a shift in the representation In this sense, the scene of the Prologue of the nation. Previously, the ‘nation’ had suggested that only the male national hero’s been thought of as comprising exclusively approval and power could save the female the male nobility. Around the 1840s, however, subject and, through saving her, legitimize liberal reformers extended the concept of theatre as a useful institution and place the nation to include the other strata of society: profession among worthy occupations. the middle-classes, peasants, serfs, urban The representation of the masculine as an workers, and – as supporters and educators active ruler and the feminine as the tor- of the reform – women. As a result, like mented and then saved passive subject could Schiller, Vörösmarty proposed in the Prologue also strengthen contemporary images of the that ‘the national theatre might in fact call male and female: the actor (Márton Lendvay) the nation into being’69 by way of metonymic playing Árpád was the real husband of the association of the characters presented on woman (Anikó Hivatal) who played the Act- stage with the nation sitting in harmony in an ress. As a result, not only was theatre as a audi torium decorated with the colours of the useful institution redeemed, not only were national flag (red, white, and green). contemporary representations of mascu- The disturbing element in this represen- linity and femininity saved, but the proper tation of the nation was, however, that

83 though, due to its conquests, the once great Bánk bán by József Katona, in part shows Hungarian kingdom had always been a multi- the important social, cultural, and political cultural and multi-ethnic territory (including functions of the National Theatre, and partly Slovaks, Slovenes, Serbs, Croats, Romanians, extends the notion of the national theatre in Germans, and Romanis), there was no theat- the sense that Kruger used the term. Ever rical reference to this ethnic and cultural since that date, the notion of national theatre diversity. From the point of view of these has been connected to the 1848 revolution in minorities, this absence was seen as a sign of particular and the independence of Hungary homogenization, Hungarian dominance, and in general.72 oppression. Consequently, the Pesti Magyar Theatre Apart from Árpád’s mythical figure, the (it became ‘National’ only from 1840) 73 was unification of the historical past with the initiated by educators, liberal reformers, and contemporary present was also emphasized elites from ‘above’ as a multi-functional in the third and fourth scenes of the Prologue national institution and was realized as a in its metatheatrical visual imagery. For these semiotized site with political, cultural, and scenes, the set was a painted back curtain moral functions connected to national iden- and a door, depicting the perspective recon- tity, ‘national survival’, and the formation of struction of the actual front of the theatre the nation-state. The creation of the theatre building. The characters from various social was situated within the modernist project of strata ‘entered’ the theatre building onstage, nation-formation in which the ‘essential and after having been saved from the ghosts, characters’ of the Hungarian people and the Actress was also escorted by Árpád to the their national culture were identified and theatre. So they entered symbolically the given political expression as distinctive and same auditorium in which the contemporary self-contained. audience was sitting, and then watched This process required that possible social, symbolically the rest of the evening together. political, ethnic, and gender contradictions Distant past times, the audience’s own past, and paradoxes be smoothed out so that the and the present moment in the theatre were representations of ‘the’ single Hungarian thus brought together. In this way the identity could be clear-cut and paramount. Prologue intended to re-create a seamless, Later, these functions and representations harmonic, and unbroken history of Hungary. were consciously preserved, nostalgically A mythical past utilized for the legitim- remembered, and utilized for nationalist ation of the present can be reassuring but, as purposes when the existence of Hungary as Assmann argued, it can also draw attention an independent state was or felt threatened, to the problems of the immediate situation.70 as when she was supposed to redefine her In this case, the present is not only reassured, cultural, political, and moral status and her but ‘becomes relative in relation to a greater, national identity after the lost revolution of more beautiful past’.71 In the second scene of 1849, after the Trianon Treaty in 1920,74 after 75 the Prologue, the Poet tells Árpád what had the Second World War in 1945, and after the happened to the Hungarians since his death: collapse of communism in 1989.76 he depicts the slow but permanent disin- tegration of the Hungarian kingdom, then the Turkish and Habsburg occupations. Thus, Challenges for Today’s Nation-States the difference between the heroic past and Performing the (single) national language, the contemporary situation could be seen as establishing an (authentic) national dramatic both a relativization of that situation and as a literature, maintaining the (genuine charac- call to change it. teristics of the) national character, and creat - That call was answered on 15 March 1848 ing the (solely authorized) national past, when the Hungarian revolution broke out in national theatres such as the Hungarian were Pest. Its celebration in the evening perfor - often supposed to serve as a means for mance with the by-then national drama, forming and maintaining a single, fixed, and

84 unified image of the nation and its identity. One result has been a slow, if uneven, erosion of Other national institutions were also sup- the ‘centred’ nationalism of the Western European posed to construct ethnically (or culturally, nation-state and a strengthening of both trans- national relations and local identities – as it were, religiously, or racially) closed or ‘pure’ for- simultaneously ‘above’ and ‘below’ the nation- mations, in which one people, one ethnicity state’.81 can gather under one political (or cultural) roof. In this sense, the nation-state (or even In spite of these difficulties, the nation-states the imperium) was imagined as a single, of present-day Europe will probably not dis- unified, and homogeneous whole, based on appear in the near future, but will need to what Homi K. Bhabha called ‘cultural homo- redefine their roles and functions within a geneity or the nation’s horizontal space’.77 world economic, political, and cultural con- The inherent problem with this concept of text. As Yael Tamir observes: the nation-state or imperium is that the his- tories of different nation-states clearly demon- The era of the homogeneous and viable nation- strate that no nation-state has ever been of states is over (or rather the era of the illusion that this ethnically (or culturally, religiously, or homogeneous and viable nation-states are possible are over, since such states never existed) and the racially) pure kind, whether in Western or national vision must be redefined.82 Eastern Europe. As Stuart Hall remarks, nation-states ‘are without exception ethnic- As a result, one of the main challenges facing ally hybrid – the product of conquests, ab- the European nation-states and their institu- 78 sorptions of one people by another’. tions today, especially within the borders of Against this hybridity, Hall continues: the European Union, is how to present the various discourses, views, and perspectives it has been the main function of national cultures of their diverse communities on national and . . . to represent what is in fact the ethnic hotch- potch of modern nationality as the primordial unity international levels. of ‘one people’; and of their invented tradition to project the ruptures and conquests, which are their real history, backwards in an apparently seam less The National Theatre of Scotland and unbroken continuity towards pure, mythic time.79 Since the election in Britain of New Labour in 1997, a paradigm shift has taken place on political and cultural levels. Politically, the Apart from this always-present though sup- New Labour model has focused on and pressed hybridity of the modern nation- emphasized the constituent nations of the state, the recent phase of globalization has ‘United Kingdom’. This remains true for witnessed one of the largest forced and un- both the overreaching new ‘Cool Britannia’ forced contemporary mass migrations. As and the nations of Northern Ireland, Wales, aresult, the nation-state, already hybridized and Scotland, which have had greater res- and diasporized, has become inextricably ponsibility for their own domestic and arts multicultural, while stable collectivities of policies and budgets since 1999, when Welsh class, race, gender, and nation have been and Northern Irish assemblies were estab- deeply undermined by social and political lished and a parliament re-established in developments. The nation-state is increas- Scotland after three hundred years. ingly stretched by political, economic, ecolo- Culturally, the New Labour model has em- gical, and cultural forces pulling power up phasized art and design as ‘creative indus- from above (globalization, multiculturalism, tries’, but this concept raises some of the information technology, supranational integ- problems inherent in the commercialization ration, and international media) and down of the arts, as Jen Harvie has summarized: from below (ethnic, social, racial, cultural, gender, and class/group difference, diver- this model’s economic emphasis prioritizes com- 80 sity, and autonomy). As David McCrone mercial value over social value and fashions cul- suggests: ture as marketable commodities rather than as

85 social acts performed by human agents. It poten- of scales and tour them to all parts of Scotland and tially limits the right to artistic expression to those abroad.90 who can make it economically productive. . . . The term potentially disempowers people by transfor - These clear and well-defined aims offered ming them from collective audiences and makers into individual and alienated consumers. It celeb- the possibility for the establishment of the rates anti-social capitalist commodity fetishism at National Theatre of Scotland as a ‘produc- the expense of social practice.83 tion company’ during 2003 and 2004.91 As a production company,92 the NTS can invest Nevertheless, the new model might be seen as extra funding in existing theatres and theatre ‘a welcome change after decades of govern - work instead of taking away all available ment neglect when the arts were perceived public theatre funding, infrastructure, and as worthy but irrelevant because [they were] human resources (directors, actors, writers, 84 rarely financially profitable’. designers, etc.). As the NTS is not building- The Scottish cultural sector in general and based, it does not limit itself to ‘what it can theatre in particular benefited from the new produce within one particular set of built emphasis on arts and culture, since it meant constraints, and draining scarce resources in- further investments and funding in order to to material infrastructures instead of cultural improve and update Scotland’s national and practices’.93 85 international image. At the same time, the Also, since the NTS is not based in one plan and the debate for the establishment of location, it cannot reinforce Scottish metro- 86 a Scottish National Theatre re-emerged. In politanism, and is not about atomized, indi- 1998, after a general meeting at the Royal vidual ‘creativity’, but is instead built on a Lyceum Theatre in , ‘the Federa- collaborative model requiring ‘co-operation tion of Scottish Theatre, who represented all and co-production between groups of insti- professional theatres in Scotland, and who tutions and people in order to succeed’.94 had been arguing for a national theatre for The activities of the NTS can thus range from decades, approached the Scottish Execu- small-scale to large-scale work, from inter- 87 tive’ with a new plan for a national theatre. national enterprises to community theatre, The Executive recognized the need to sup- from building-based work to touring, and port a Scottish theatre suffering from under- from urban-metropolitan experience to small funding, and pledged in its Strategy ‘to take village projects. In this sense, as Harvie also steps to establish a national theatre for Scot- proposed before the opening of the NTS, it 88 land’. An independent Working Group set ‘will at once assume the authority of being up by the Executive examined the plan, and national while maintaining the confidence to their Final Report in 2001 gave a detailed devolve and disperse its powers. It will also analysis of the tasks and functions of the work collaboratively, and be adaptable to Scot- national theatre based nearly on the same land’s geographical and cultural diversity’.95 principles proposed by the Federation in 89 1998. The Report pointed out that What ‘Home’ Means Today 4.3 The Scottish National Theatre should be a creative producer which engages with the whole The opening performances of the NTS theatre sector as its ‘production company’, work- clearly put in motion the expectations of the ing with and through the existing Scottish theatre Report, and also proved Harvie’s assump- community to achieve its objectives. tions correct. The NTS was launched at the 4.4 The Scottish National Theatre should develop end of February 2006 with a project called a quality repertoire originating in Scotland. This , for which ten directors were asked to will include new work, existing work and the Home drama of other countries and cultures to which a devise a piece of theatre around the word range of Scottish insights, language and sensi- ‘home’, working in partnership with a specific bility can be applied. area and community to create an experience 4.5 The Scottish National Theatre should com mis - for the particular audiences of , sion and initiate works of excellence on a variety , Dumfries, , ,

86 Edinburgh, , , , logy, presentation techniques, and materials, and . As the director of the NTS, the latter seen in the presentation of the Vicky Feather stone, put it before the opening: experiences drawn from different territories, age groups, and genders within the borders Home is our way of launching [the NTS] all over of Scotland. In this way, Home’s focus on Scotland: allowing somebody in Inverness or intraculturality explored ‘the differences that Stornoway or Caithness to see an entirely differ- ent performance by a completely different direc- exist within the boundaries of [this] particu - tor but at the same time part of the opening night; lar region in what [was previously] assumed for the work to reach across Scotland as far as to be a homogenized culture’.102 At the same 96 possible. time, it could also call ‘attention to the internal cultural diversities within [this] In Aberdeen, for instance, the director of specific region’.103 Based on these diversities, Afterlife Theatre Company, Alison Peebles, Home’s focus on interculturality projected with writer and designer Martin the different and diverse images of Scotland McNee, put together – in Joyce McMillan’s back onto the international theatre and media phrase – ‘a vivid, edgy, and moving medita - scenes. The different images represented Scot- tion, in six flats and ten parts, on what land as an amalgam of different and dif- 97 “home” means today’. In Edinburgh, the ferently imagined communities.104 writer-director asked ten- to twelve-year-old schoolchildren to write scripts about what they imagined First Representing National Diversity Minister’s Question Time to be, which were In its later productions, the NTS has fol- then performed by well-known actors to an lowed that direction, attempting to reach 98 audience at the Queen’s Hall, while in and represent Scotland horizontally and Shetland, in an installation-like performance vertically, including its cities and villages, its staged aboard the Northlink Ferry by direc- capital and its provinces, theatre spaces and tor Wils Wilson, a poetic text by non-theatre spaces, as well as children, adults, was delivered through personal guided-tour theatre professionals and amateurs, profes- handsets, and sional theatres and school and community groups. led us through a story of deeply buried female The production of experience, and of the perennial island tension The Wolves in the Walls between leaving and staying, as ghostly actors was the result of collaboration between dressed in 1940s or 1950s costume drifted through Improbable Theatre and Vicky Featherstone, the lounges and saloons of the ship.99 and was prepared for children. Site-specific performances have included Falling,pre - In Glasgow, NTS director pre- sented by Poorboy and the NTS Workshop in sented ‘the ultra-dramatic story of hero association with Arches Theatre Company Mudro’s return from London to his old high- through the streets and subways of Glasgow 100 rise home’. Lord of the Ring’s Billy Boyd city centre, while Roam, co-produced with and Taggart’s Blythe Duff led the perform- Grid Iron, was created in the passenger areas ance in which actors were filmed inside the of Edinburgh International Airport. Falling tower block by three men abseiling down the depicted an innocent Glasgow male liar chas- buildings with handheld cameras,101 then ing beauty, women, and redemption without these shoots were projected onto a huge a map; Roam explored the intima cies, pro- screen seen by a thousand people from the cedures, and politics behind multi-global air natural amphitheatre of the ground below. travel, focusing on arriving-and-leaving, As a result of these different perform- home-and-abroad, now-and-then, here-and- ances, Home worked on both ‘intercultural’ there, war-and-peace, displacement-and- and (to use Rustom Bharucha’s term) ‘intra- identity-searching. Its multicultural text was cultural’ levels – the former made manifest performed a multinational company of ten in the presence of international stars, techno- professional players and a large number of

87 non-professional participants aged from five Scotland as a diverse cultural, social, and to eighty-five. political community. The imagery presented Other NTS productions have involved dif - on its various stages goes beyond such ferent age, social, and occupational groups. Scottish stereotypes as tartan, kilts, heather, 109 The early production of Elizabeth Gordon haggis, and misty landscapes. The NTS Quinn thus aimed to present an often sup- does not want to define what Scotland is and pressed female experience, while the later does not impose a uniform Scottish identity production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible in advance and then trim working methods (a co-operation with NTS Learn and TAG and performances to fit those preconceived Theatre Company) was based on a six-month images. Instead, it is a possible public forum, school and community collaboration. a virtual stage where different voices and dis- The 2006 summer productions – the inter- courses – ‘the competing versions’ of Scot- 105 nationally acclaimed , written land: ‘Scotland of the past and the present; by and directed by John Scotland of the Highlands or the Lowlands; Tiffany, and Anthony Neilson’s new play small-town east-coast Scotland versus Scot- 106 110 Realism – were shown on the Edinburgh land of the west-coast conurbation’ – and Fringe and at the Edinburgh International the variety of cultural/political identities can Festival, while John Byrne’s popular TV be formed and presented. comedy-drama, Tutti Frutti, directed by Tony As Featherstone hoped, the NTS has ‘the Cownie, was the result of collaboration with chance to undefine, to throw open the doors Aberdeen’s His Majesty’s Theatre, and of possibility, to encourage boldness, and . . . Schiller’s Mary Stuart, directed by Vicky to be surprised about where that boldness Featherstone, was co-produced with the may take you’.111 , Glasgow, and the , Edinburgh.107 Apart from its different productions, the ‘Undefining’ Nationality structural and organizational model of NTS As a result, the NTS has created opportu - is shaped also to generate wide-ranging nities through which it can challenge stereo- activities, and establish wide and different typical representations of Scotland; suggest audiences across Scotland. The NTS Work- alternatives beyond the usual imagery of shop provides opportunities for artists and Scotland; and facilitate the different iden- theatre companies across Scotland to realize tities, voices, and theatre practices, the differ- their projects by encouraging risk taking, ent images of the nation, which all go to and in the Learn programme teams of artists make up what Scotland means and is today. and theatre makers are working across Scot- This ‘fragmentary’ approach to a national land to inspire and empower anyone to theatre fits well in an age characterized by make exciting theatre, while the Team pro- globalization, fragmentation, hybridization, gramme includes four teams of theatre prac- diasporas, uncertainties, and the displace- titioners who are working in communities ment of identities. throughout Scotland, sharing their skills and In the practical, everyday life of the NTS, experience with a wide range of groups. NTS however, there are, of course, some concerns. Exchange involves exchanges between differ- For ‘a theatre without walls’, the first prob- ent youth theatre groups within Scotland; lem comes from touring. If NTS produces a NTS Connecting Communities links com- large-scale work in one of the well-equipped munities within and outside Scotland; and city theatres, can it really tour? Are there NTS Diaspora brings international directors adequate infrastructures in small towns and and performances to Scotland’s International villages? If not, does the lack of infrastruc- Theatre Festival.108 ture affect artistic decisions? If large-scale As we can see from Home, the later NTS works cannot tour, can people travel to the productions, and its different programmes, big cities? Can everyone afford it? Are they the intention of the company is to present willing to make the effort?

88 The NTS intends to commission work tation on the stages of the legitimate theatres from writers, directors, and existing theatre (the NTP in France and the FTP in the USA). companies. Are there properly functioning, In its last formation to date (the NTS in permanent, and well-funded companies that Scotland) it does, however, differ signific - can produce performances on both national antly from those previous models. Until and international levels? The rehearsal period recently, a national theatre had been thought for an NTS production is usually six to seven of as a centralized, monumental institution weeks.112 What can be achieved on an inter- reflecting nationhood and identity, often national level within this short time-span? inward-looking through an exclusive textual As the NTS is ‘within the reach of all’, it is canon and a unitary, unifying language. The accessible to everyone by allowing space to Scottish example has redirected it as a express different views: but what is the limit? concept based on a plural, diverse, and de- Whose views are not tolerated? And who centred network of groups – one adaptable decides? to represent the scattered and culturally As a result of these concerns, the NTS can divided population of any nation. only work properly on international and What this fragmentary view of a national national levels when the whole Scottish theatre tends to suggest is that even in today’s theatre system is working properly. And since post-industrial, post-socialist, and globalized theatre is (still) underfunded in Scotland, world, when theatre in general is a marginal that can only be achieved by investing more commodity in a capitalist cultural industry, resources in the infrastructure of existing national theatre projects can still draw people, theatre buildings and community centres parties, groups, and institutions as partici- across Scotland; by making travel easier and pants in debates, demonstrations, and panels cheaper by cultural subsidy; and by increas- on what it might be or should be within their ing the subsidy for the entire theatre sector. real or virtual walls. As a result, the current As the 2001 Report suggested, the NTS advocates of national theatre projects might ‘cannot by itself solve the problems of under- be able to transform an old idea and an old investment in Scotland’s theatre infrastruc- institution into new methodological territo- ture’, but it ‘can play a major role in enhanc ing ries and alternative sites where the status quo and energizing the Scottish theatre scene, can be reconsidered, and where the constant and in winning a higher profile for the (re)constructions of nationhood, nationality, achievements of Scottish theatre’.113 For all and national identity can be analyzed and the problems, the NTS can immensely contri - understood. We shall see . . . bute to the Scottish theatre scene in general, and can also increase the awareness of the arts as useful elements for the well being of Notes and References today’s Scottish society. I would like to thank Roberta Doyle and Neil Murray of the National Theatre of Scotland for their help in discussing the various issues of the NTS, and who also provided details Final Thoughts on a National Theatre of those shows I was unable to see. 1. Vicky Featherstone, ‘Dream Theatre Becomes Thus far I have tried to demonstrate some of Reality’, Scotland on Sunday, 19 February 2006. the differing concepts of a national theatre. It 2. Loren Kruger, The National Stage: Theatre and Cultu- has been used for national unification with- ral Legitimation in England, France, and America (Chicago; London: University of Chicago Press, 1992), p. 3. out an existing country, as in Germany, or 3. Ibid., p. 3. within an existing country (France, Denmark 4. Ibid., p. 4. for instance); in opposition to foreign opp- 5. Ibid., p. 79. 6. Ibid., p. 134. res sors (Hungary, Serbia, Croatia, Norway), 7. Ibid., p. 87. as well as for imperial unification over other 8. As Kruger summarized in her introduction: ‘The nations and ethnic groups (Austria, Russia, English and French national theatre projects were marked by notions of a national culture in the imperial Sweden, the UK). It can also be used as a context at the turn of the twentieth century, notions that forum for those who do not have represen- sought to mobilize but also to discipline the masses,

89 subjecting them to the dual authority of the centralized large sum for the establishment of ‘a good national state and metro politan high culture. The American theatre’. In consequence, the Mannheim National Theatre debates attempted to resurrect not merely discourses of was supported by the monarch, and was established as popular sovereignty invoked by the théâtres populaires, a gift from the sovereign to his subjects. The structural but also their implicitly regional politics and local culture, organization of the Mannheim National Theatre fol- to renegotiate critically the unquestioned metropoli t - lowed its Viennese counterpart. anism of the English and French projects.’ Ibid., p. 5. 19. The Pesti Magyar Színház (later called National 9. In France in 1680, Denmark in 1746, Sweden in Theatre) was realized against the Habsburgs in 1837, 1765, Poland in 1765, Germany (Hamburg) in 1767, while the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad was Austria in 1776, Germany (Mannheim) in 1778, Russia in created against Hungarian domination in 1861.At that 1812, Hungary in 1837, Belgium in 1853, Croatia in 1860, time, Novi Sad was part of the Hungarian monarchy, Romania in 1875, Norway in 1876, and Serbia in 1884. and was thus considered a Hungarian city with its Apart from these countries, national theatres were official Hungarian name, Újvidék. See István Póth, A founded in Ireland in 1904, Belgium again in 1945, Great Magyar népszínmű a szerb színpadon (Budapest: Akadé- Britain in 1969, and Scotland in 2005. miai, 1981), p. 8–20. 10. T. James Reed, ‘Theatre, Enlightenment, and 20. For a detailed analysis of the early attempts to Nation: a German Problem’, in Samuel S. B. Taylor, ed., establish national theatres in Eastern and Northern The Theatre of the French and German Enlightenment (Edin- Europe, see Laurence Senelick, ed., The National Theatre burgh, 1979), p. 50. in Northern and Eastern Europe, 1746–1900 (Cambridge: 11. See, for example, Marvin Carlson, Places of Cambridge University Press, 1991). Performance: the Semiotics of Theater Architecture (Ithaca; 21. The co-existence of the nation-state and national London: Cornell University Press, 1989), p. 94;John theatre is not so evident – Italy, for instance, has never Russell Brown, The Oxford Illustrated History of Theatre had a national theatre. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 292–4; and 22. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflec- Erika Fischer-Lichte, ‘Some Critical Remarks on Theatre tions on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London; Historiography’, in S. E. Wilmer, ed., Writing and Rewrit - New York: Verso, 1991), p. 6. ing National Theatre Histories (Iowa City: University of 23. Ibid., p. 6. Iowa Press, 2004), p. 1–16. 24. It is surprising that for Anderson the imagina- 12. Reed, op. cit., p. 48. tion of a nation is confined solely to the printed word, 13. See, for example, F. W. J. Hemmings, Theatre and without reference to the various ways in which a nation the State in France, 1760–1905 (Cambridge: Cambridge can be imagined in music hall and theatre, painting, University Press, 1995), p. 6–10. popular music, architecture, fashion, cultural perform- 14. See, for example, Carlson, op. cit., p. 73–4. ances, and later television, film, radio, and information 15. Apart from the Comédie-Française and the Berlin technology. As Tim Edensor points out, ‘Anderson’s Opera House, the Hof- und Nationaltheater in Vienna in focus on the idea that the nation is reproduced and rep - 1778, the Russziszkij Tyeatr, Moscow, in 1765, and the resented textually tends to efface the spatial, material, Teatr Narodowy in Warsaw in 1765 were also estab- and embodied production of communal identities.’ See lished by royal edicts. Tim Edensor, National Identity, Popular Culture, and 16. The structural organization of the Hof- und Everyday Life (Oxford; New York: Berg, 2002), p. 7. For a Nationaltheater followed the Comédie-Française. At the detailed analysis of the various practices through which beginning, it was also led by a so-called committee (Ver- a nation can be imagined and represented outside texts, sammlung) consisting of the leading players, who voted see, for instance, David Boswell and Jessica Evans, ed., on issues of the repertoire, proposed contracts, and roles Representing the Nation: a Reader – Histories, Heritage, and allocated. Soon, however, the monarch established a Museums (London; New York: Routledge and the Open leading group of five members which took over the University, 2004). responsibilities of the assembly. In 1779, the Theatrical 25. Allucquére Rosanne Stone, ‘A szellem teste’, Laws appeared which governed the structural organiz- Replika, V, No. 2 (1995), p. 298. ation of the theatre, aimed at ensemble playing, and 26. Jen Harvie, Staging the UK (Manchester; New regulated rehearsals and the distribution of roles. With York: Manchester University Press, 2005), p. 16. these reforms, however, the monarch set an (unwanted) 27. Ibid., p. 3. example to the ethnic groups of the Empire, which soon 28. Ibid. For a detailed analysis of nationalism in the followed him by establishing their own national theatre. vernacular and the quotidian see Michael Billig, Banal See Ferenc Hont, ed., A színház világtörténete I–II Nationalism (London: Sage, 1995); Clive Palmer ‘From (Budapest: Gondolat, 1972), Vol. I. p. 381–3; Mályuszné Theory to Practice: Experiencing the Nation in Everyday Császár Edit, ‘A nemzeti színjátszás kezdetei Közép- Life’, Journal of Material Culture, III, No. 2 (1998), p. Kelet Európában’, in József Szauder and Andor Tarnai, 175–99; Anthony Thompson, ‘Nations, National Identity, ed., Irodalom és felvilágosdás (Budapest: Akadémiai, and Human Agency: Putting People Back into Nations’, 1974), p. 471–98; and Peter Simhandl, Színháztörténet Sociological Review, XV, No. 1 (2001), p. 18–32; and (Budapest: Helikon, 1996), p. 182–91. Edensor, op. cit. 17. On his deathbed, Joseph II withdrew the lan- 29. Jan Assmann, Das kulturelle Gedächtnis: Schrift, guage edict among some of his other edicts in 1790. Erinnerung, und politsche Identität in frühen Hochkulturen 18. The Mannheim National Theatre was also estab- (Munchen: Verlag C. H. Beck, 1999), p. 31. lished by a royal edict when in 1778 the monarch, Karl 30. Ibid., p. 35–43. Theodor, decided to take his court and his theatre com - 31. Ibid., p. 40. pany from Mannheim to Munich. As compensation for 32. Pierre Nora, ‘Entre mémoire et historie: la prob- the economic loss due to the court’s departure, the lémetique des lieux’, in Nora, Les lieux de mémoire. I: La citizens of Mannheim asked the monarch either to locate Républic (Paris, 1984), p. 2–25. the University of Heidelberg in the city or to give them a 33. Carlson, op. cit., p. 6.

90 34. Ibid., p. 7. 42. See, for example, Gyula Viszota, ‘A Nemzeti 35. Peggy Phelan, ‘Playing Dead in Stone, or, When Színház és Gróf Széchenyi István’, in Viszota, A százéves Is a Rose not a Rose?’ in Elin Diamond, ed., Performance Nemzeti Színház (Budapest: Pallas, 1938), p. 64–8. and Cultural Politics (London; New York: Routledge, 43. ‘Half the subjects of the Kingdom of Hungary 1996), p. 65–88. were non-Magyar. Only one third of the serfs were Mag - 36. Apart from the usual financial, contractual, and yar speakers. In the early nineteenth century, the high legal difficulties and problems, Phelan demonstrated that Magyar aristocracy spoke French or German; the middle the homosexual associations of the Rose Theatre in the and lower nobility conversed in a dog-Latin strewn with seventeenth century were among the hidden reasons Magyar, but also with Slovak, Serb, and Romanian why certain homophobic politicians of the 1990s British expressions as well as vernacular German.’ See Paul establishment did not want to continue with the excava- Ignotus, Hungary (New York; Washington, D.C.: Praeger, tion of the remains, despite of the fact that further 1972), p. 45–6. excavation could have given us valuable insights into 44. In the nineteenth century, the establishment of Elizabethan theatre architecture; and also did not want national theatre in Eastern Europe usually took place in to elevate the status of the discovery to a national and an intercultural context built on a diverse ethnic popu- international level. For the struggle surrounding the Rose lation and a diverse theatrical life. The former resulted excavation, see S. P. Cerasano, ‘Raising a Playhouse from each country consisting of different ethnicities from the Dust’, Shakespeare Quarterly, XL, No. 4 (1989), p. having lived together for centuries due to conquests and 483–90; Richard Kohler, ‘Excavating Henslowe’s Rose’, migrations. The latter was due partly to foreign (German, Shakespeare Quarterly, XL, No. 4 (1989), p. 475–82; R. A. French, Italian, and English) travelling troupes; partly to Foakes, ‘The Discovery of the Rose: Some Implications’, resident foreign-language companies; and partly to the Shakespeare Survey, XLIII, No. 2 (1989), p. 141–8; and various attempts to establish and maintain national John Orrell, ‘Nutshells at the Rose’, Theatre Research language companies. Also, this diverse theatrical life International, XVII, No. 1 (1992) p. 8–15. was often built upon local medieval traditions (liturgical 37. Eric J. Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism since dialogues, mystery plays, passion plays, pageants), 1780 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), school drama, and aristocratic court theatre. See p. 50–3. Senelick, op. cit; Mályuszné Császár Edit, op. cit., p. 38. Though the Hungarian feudal assembly in 1723 479–80; Hont, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 238–50, 409–34, and Vol. accepted that the Austrian hereditary provinces and the II, p. 680-754; Edward Csato, The Polish Theatre (Warsaw: Hungarian Kingdom were connected to each other as Polonia, 1963), p. 12–14; František Cerny,˘ ‘A Theatrical one indivisibly and inseparably (‘indivisibiliter ac insepar- Guide to Prague’, Theatre Research, XIII, No. 1 (1973), p. abiliter, invicem et insimul’), and in case of an outside 7–8; and Simon Alterescu, ed., An Abridged History of attack were supposed to defend each other mutually, Romanian Theatre (Bucharest: Academiei, 1983), p. 11–32. Hungary could keep its quasi-independence with its 45. Though the Pesti Magyar Theatre had been own administrative institutions. These institutions, finan cially organized and run as a limited company, the however, were subordinated to the Emperor and located first years resulted in disastrous financial losses. In order in different cities: the Kancellária (Hungarian Chan- to compensate, the feudal assembly renamed the theatre cellery) in Vienna, the feudal assembly (Dieta) in Poz- in 1840 as the Hungarian National Theatre, and pro- sony (now Bratislava, Slovakia), the Helytartótanács vided it with regular financial state support. As a result, (Council of the Governor-General) in Buda. The political the National Theatre became one of the earliest rights belonged to and were only practised by the examples of a state-subsidized institution in Hungary. nobility at the Dieta or locally at the county meetings. 46. See, for example, Ferenc Kerényi, Magyar Szín- Foreign affairs, defence, and the treasury were con- háztörténet 1790–1873 (Budapest: Akadémiai, 1990), p. trolled by the Emperor, who could also decide to con- 259–63; and Ferenc Kerényi, ‘A Nemzeti Színház: és vene or dissolve the assembly at will. As the monarchy amirôl nem beszélünk’, Magyar Napló, XVI, No. 3 (1999), was multi-ethnic, the Habsburgs usually utilized the p. 40–2. aims of the various ethnic groups for her own purposes. 47. Hollier, in Phelan, op. cit., p. 75. The institutional systems and political relations were 48. Kosselleck, in Assmann, op. cit., p. 63. reinforced by the Hungarian nobility in the Dieta in 49. See Carlson, op. cit., p. 72–3. 1791, and again in 1825, and they were not changed until 50. Ibid., p. 73–5. the war of independence of 1848–49. See Iván Berényi 51. Ibid., p. 73. and Gábor Gyapai, ed., Magyarország rövid története 52. The proposal to establish a Hungarian National (Budapest: Maecenas, 1997), p. 305–7 and 323–47. Theatre was first mentioned in a German-language 39. For the connections between theatre, language, pamphlet in 1779 by István Frendel. and literature in the various Northern and Eastern Euro- 53. István Széchenyi, A magyar Játékszínrül (Pest: pean countries, see Senelick, op. cit., p. 1–16. Füskúti Landerer, 1832). 40. Latin remained the official language of state 54. See, for example, László Szekér, A nemzet szín- administration until 1844, when it was replaced by háza építésének 150 éves története (Budapest: Műszaki, Hungarian. 1989), p. 23–37; Mihály Vörösmarty, Összes Művei: 41. The issue of a national language seemed to be Drámák V (Budapest: Akadémiai, 1971), p. 537; Mihály crucial to the establishment of national theatres in the Vörösmarty, Összes Művei: Dramaturgiai Lapok (Buda- nineteenth century, but there were exceptions in the pest: Akadémiai, 1969), p. 363–71; and Berényi and twentieth. For instance, the Finnish National Theatre Gyapai, op. cit., p. 343–7. (1902) performed in Swedish, while the Abbey Theatre 55. Vörösmarty, op. cit., p. 66. (the so-called Irish National Theatre, 1904), and the 56. In those countries of the continent where the National Theatre of Scotland (2005) perform also in institution of royalty was powerful (such as Germany, English. The establishment of national theatres concerns Russia, and Austria-Hungary) in national institutions more issues than a national language. like the national opera house or national theatre, a royal

91 box was placed opposite the stage at the first level, state. Also, István is a more complicated figure: his surrounded by other private boxes. The distance from access to power was steeped in the blood of fellow the main box in the theatre signified the economic and Hungarians, and sealed by the Catholic Church. István political distance from the strongest element in the had to defeat and then kill the leader of another society. As the performance, the arrangement of the Hungarian tribe, Koppány who also sought the throne. stage and the structure of the auditorium were created In order to succeed, István had to accept and then from this central point of view. The seats in the royal box spread Western Christianity, resulting in the denial of were the best available in the theatre, from which the the old Hungarian tribal gods and the acceptance of monarch could appreciate the whole spectacle, audience foreign financial help and weaponry. István became the and performance alike. Thus the ‘glance’ of the sover- focus of national attention in the form of various pro- eign was always on his/her sub jects, physically in the cessions and rituals in the second half of the nineteenth theatre and symbolically in reality.The industrial and century, when the national identity of the Hungarian political power of the royalty predestined the monarch people was already established, and the question of an to possess the ‘leading role’ in such societies, and this independent Hungarian state was becoming increasingly was reflected in the seating arrangments of a theatre. important. Moreover, these national insti tu tions were usually spon - 63. The Prologue connected the Pesti Magyar Theatre sored by him/her financially. In Hungary, however, as to one of the previous attempts to establish a permanent the theatre was built by Pest county, and the repre - Hungarian-language theatre. In Pest, on 1 January 1834, sentative of the Emperor, József Nádor, did not really a Hungarian-language company launched its first year- support its construction, the royal box was not finished round season with a ‘silent play’ with the same theme on time, and the theatre was opened without Nádor’s and structure. After a year, however, the company had invitation. to tour in the provinces due to financial difficulties. 57. Phelan, op. cit., p. 75. Apart from the pattern of the Prologue,this company 58. Belizár was written by Eduard von Schenk, and also gave its leading players to the National Theatre. translated into Hungarian by János Kiss. It was a popu- 64. Barish, in Harvie, op. cit., p. 117–18. lar play at that time, and was frequently performed by 65. Ruth Padel, I’m a Man: Sex, Gods, and Rock and Roll the German Theatre of Pest in lavish and spectacular (London: Faber and Faber, 2000), p. 229, 239. productions. The story, set in sixth-century Byzantium, 66. Michael Mangan, Staging Masculinities: History, focused on the successful General Belizár’s private con- Gender, Performance (London; New York: Palgrave Mac- flict with his wife and public conflict with the Emperor. millan, 2005), p. 18. With Shakespeare’s Coriolanus as a probable model, the 67. Vörösmarty’s instruction from the Prologue. See historical narrative concentrated on the topics of free- Vörösmarty, op. cit., p. 209. dom, sovereignty, loyalty, treachery, patriotism, indep - 68. National co-operation also played a significant endence, conquest, foreigners, and locals. By staging role in the establishment of the Serbian National Theatre this well-known historical play, the Hungarian theatre in Novi Sad in 1861 and the Czech National Theatre in could articulate important questions concerning Hun- Prague in 1881. After the publication of the appeal to the garian identity; demonstrate its ability to present a Serbian nation on 15 March 1861 for a national theatre, spectacular production in competition with the German all strata of Serbian society contributed financially to the theatre; and avoid censorship. building of the theatre. See Póth, op. cit., p. 14–15. As 59. Before the opening performance of the Pesti Jindřich Honzl pointed out, the National Theatre in Magyar Színház, contemporary newspapers tried to Prague was not built ‘out of state funds, but it was built guess or rather suggest plays focused on heroes from by means of national collections, penny-collections, Hungarian history. In the event, the paucity of a native loans, by so-called “national taxes”, charitable bazaars drama is clearly evident, as contemporary critics also and lotteries, so the biggest share of this voluntary noted – the critic of the magazine Rajzolatok mentioning national tax was actually paid by the common people that ‘the entire civilized Europe is now laughing at us as and the poor’. See Jindřich Honzl, ‘The Building of the the Hungarian National Theatre had been prepared for National Theatre in Prague’, in Honzl, ed., The Czecho- a thousand years, but it was opened by a play, Belizár, slovak Theatre: a Collection of Informative Material on translated from German’. Quoted in Vörösmarty, Összes Theatrical Activities in Czechoslovakia (Prague: Orbis, Művei: Drámák V (Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1971), p. 1948), p. 22. Above the portal of the building ‘stands the 552. Apart from the international shame, we should not inscription “Národ sobě” (The Nation to Itself) as a forget the strict Austrian censorship. reminder that the theatre was built from the nationwide 60. For the connection between the topics of ‘sleep’, contributions’. See Cerny,˘ op. cit., p. 6. ‘awakening’, and ‘national consciousness’, see Anderson, 69. Friedriech Schiller, ‘Was kann eine stehende op. cit., p. 196–7. Bühne eigentlich wirken?’, in Schiller, Werke 1 (Munich: 61. As the Hungarian literary historian József Szili Hauser, 1984), p. 728. pointed out: ‘In nineteenth-century Hungarian litera- 70. Assmann, op. cit., p. 79. ture, the basic theme of the “grand récit” was Árpád’s 71. Ibid., p. 79. conquest of Hungary.’ See József Szili, ‘A nemzeti eopsz 72. The power of this tradition can be seen in the fact mint a nemzettudat kanonizált mu˝faja’, Helikon, XXIII, that the first permanent building of the Hungarian No. 3 (1998), p. 269. National Theatre was opened on the same day, 15 March 62. Árpád’s figure reflects a decision that the found- 2002. ing and uniting father of the Hungarians had to be 73. See footnote 45, above. represented, since his figure symbolized peoples and 74. For the connection between the National Theatre individuals as nations. The other central historical figure and national politics in the 1920–30s, see Zoltán Imre, was the first Hungarian King, István I. István’s figure, ‘(National) Canon, (National) Theatre and (National) however, symbolized institutions, religion, and admi - Identity: a Debate over a 1928 Bánk bán-mise en scène in nistration, as it was he who established the Hungarian Hungary’, Hungarian Studies, XV, No. 1 (2001), p. 93–112.

92 75. For the connection between the National Theatre Theatre, see Roger Savage, ‘A Scottish National Theatre?’, and national politics in the 1940–50s, see Zoltán Imre, ‘A in Randall Stevenson and Gavin Wallace, ed., Scottish diktatúra teatralitása és a színház emlékezete: Rákosi Theatre since the Seventies (Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ- Mátyás és a Nemzeti Színház 1955-ös Tragédia-előadása’, er sity Press, 1996), p. 23–34. in Imre, ed., Átvilágítás: a Magyar színház európai kontext- 87. For a fuller summary of its evolution, see Robert usban (Budapest: Áron, 2004), p. 63–95. Leach, ‘The Short, Astonishing History of the National 76. Since its inception, cultural, political, and finan - Theatre of Scotland’, New Theatre Quarterly, XXIII, No. 2 cial control over the National Theatre has been debated. (2007), p. 171–4. The control over the existing theatre company had been 88. Scottish Executive, Creating Our Future, Minding connected to the proposed permanent building, which Our Past: Scotland’s National Cultural Strategy, accessed 17 September 2006. company then stayed in its third temporary building 89. For a detailed analysis of Scotland’s national until the opening of the new theatre on 15 March 2002, companies after devolution, see Christine Hamilton and on the Danube shore, further down from the present city Adrienne Scullion, ‘Flagship or Flagging? The Post- centre. Though the company has worked since 1837 in Devolution Role of Scotland’s “National” Companies’, Budapest, and four other National Theatres exist in Scottish Affairs, XLIII, No. 4 (2003), p. 98–114. smaller towns in Hungary – Győr, Miskolc, Pécs, and 90. Scottish National Theatre: Final Report of the Indep- Szeged – the notion of a permanent building had been endent Working Group (Glasgow: Scottish Arts Council, the most significant (virtual) theatre project in Hungary 2001), p. 5. until 2002, around which (real and virtual) cultural, 91. ‘The Working Group Report was considered by political, moral, and social performances occurred. The the Executive, and, in September 2003, Andy Kerr, Minis- architectural concept of the 2002 building, its construc- ter for Finance and Public Services, allocated £7.5 million tion process and budget, artistic leadership, ensemble, over two years for the development of a National repertory, finance, and the choice of Imre Madách’s Az Theatre of Scotland. . . . Richard Findlay, Chief Executive ember tragédiája (Tragedy of Man, 1861) on the opening and Chair of Scottish Radio Holdings, was appointed night were all the sites of passionate public controversy. Chairman of the National Theatre of Scotland on 1 77. Homi K. Bhabha, ‘DissemiNation: Time, Narra- December 2003, a Board of Directors was announced the tive, and the Margins of a Modern Nation’, in Bhabha, following April, and Vicky Featherstone was appointed The Location of Culture (London; New York: Routledge, Artistic Director and Chief Executive on 1 November 2004), p. 220. 2004.’ See Leach, op. cit., p. 174. 78. Stuart Hall, ‘Culture, Community, Nation’, in 92. On the continent there are other companies that Boswell and Evans, op. cit., p. 38. organize their structure as ‘production houses’ – the 79. Ibid. Dutch Toneelshuur in Haarlem and the National Theatre 80. As David McCrone summarizes the problems of of Ghent. See Dragan Klaič, ‘A nemzeti színházak a the nation-state today: ‘The historic nation-state . . . is nemzetállamok elhalásának korában’ accessed 17 October diminishing correspondence between political and eco- 2006. nomic systems. The nation-state appears to be losing its 93. Harvie, op. cit., p. 32. rationale in a world dominated by multinational corpor- 94. Ibid. ations and transnational organizations. Politically, the 95. Ibid., p. 33. raison d’être of the nation-state, the control of violence 96. Vicky Featherstone, ‘Dream Theatre Becomes and aggression, has been severely curtailed. In cultural Reality’, Scotland on Sunday, 19 February 2006. terms, nations can no longer practise what Weber called 97. McMillan’s review continued: ‘To the left, as we “Kultur politische”, the political protection of cultural crowded into the cold staircase, a door was labelled identity. . . . Multiculturalism becomes no longer merely “home is where the heart is”; behind it, in a room full of desirable, but inevitable.’ David McCrone, Understand- old photographs and nostalgic décor, an old lady was ing Scotland: the Sociology of a Nation (London; New York: living out of a life of crushing loneliness, haunted by the Routledge, 2001), p. 52–3. ghosts of her long-gone family. In the top flat, an ageing 81. Ibid., p. 37. fisherman thrown on the economic scrapheap won- 82. Yael Tamir, Liberal Nationalism (Princeton, NJ: dered who was suffering the more painful slide towards Princeton University Press, 1993), p. 3. extinction – himself, or the cod he once fished. What the 83. Harvie, op. cit., p. 23. Aberdeen show achieved was a bringing-together of all 84. Ibid. the strands of meaning in the word “home”, from 85. For introductions to Scottish theatre, see Randall nostalgia to the quest for new places to call our own.’ Stevenson and Gavin Wallace, ed., op. cit.; Alasdair See Joyce McMillan, ‘For One Weekend, All the World’s Cameron, ‘Experimental Theatre in Scotland’, in a Stage’, The Scotsman, 27 February 2006. Theodore Shank, op. cit., p. 123–38; Bill Findlay, ed., A 98. The controversy over the location of Home Edin- History of Scottish Theatre (Edinburgh: Polygon, 1998); burgh shows that there is a slight fear of the theatre and Valentina Poggi and Margaret Rose, ed., A Theatre occupying the official site of politics, the Parliament. As that Matters: Twentieth-Century Scottish Drama and Theatre Neilson explained it, ‘Originally, the play was meant to (Bologna: Edizioni Unicopli, 2000). For an analysis of be staged there [in the Parliament building], but mys- Scottish touring and theatregoing, see Christine Hamil- tifyingly they [members of the Parliament] declined to ton and Adrienne Scullion, ‘ “Picture It If Yous Will”: go any further with it once they heard what it was going Theatre and Theatregoing in Rural Scotland’, New Theatre to be like.’ See Anthony Neilson in Kate Emslie, ‘National Quarterly, XXI, No. 1 (2005), p. 61–76. Theatre? Kids’ Stuff’, Evening News, 23 February 2006. 86. For a short summary of the various debates and See also Tim Cornwell, ‘The Longest Day’, The Scotsman, their themes concerning the proposed Scottish National 11 February 2006.

93 99. McMillan, op. cit. McMillan, ‘Realism’, The Scotsman, 16 August 2006), 100. Ibid. and ‘the grinding mundanity of everyday life’ (Charles 101. See also Katie Emslie, ‘Stars Come Home for Spencer, ‘What Men are Really Like’, The Daily Telegraph, Theatre’s Launch Play’, Evening News, 18 February 2006. 17 August 2006), they were also depicted through the 102. Rustom Bharucha, The Politics of Cultural Prac- experiences of a Scottish male character called Stuart. tice: Thinking Through Theatre in an Age of Globalization 107. The critics also appreciated the efforts of the (London: Athlone, 2000), p. 8. NTS, especially Home and Roam. As Ben Hind reported, 103. Ibid., p. 9. ‘The new National Theatre of Scotland dominated the 104. As Mark Espiner remarks, ‘This approach makes Critics Awards for Theatre yesterday, taking six of the national theatre local, and by going out to local commu- ten gongs on offer at the prestigious event.’ See Ben nities it counters the perceived control-freakery and Hind, ‘Site-Specific Drama Pays Off as National Theatre remoteness of a faceless subsidized organisation.’ See Wins Six Awards’, The Scotsman, 5 June 2006. Mark Espiner, ‘Breaking out of the Box’, The Guardian, 23 108. Moreover, the NTS has a small Touring En - February 2006. semble including actors and musicians which performs 105. In Black Watch, the romantic stereotype of the three different shows across Scotland, and a Young Scottish warrior was scrutinized, since the production Company of seven (a director, two producers, and four dealt with the present situation and the historical actors) based in Platform at the Bridge, a new multi- development of the famous Scottish regiment, the Black purpose arts venue in Easterhouse. As Featherstone Watch, through the crisis in Iraq. Based on inter views expressed it in 2006 , the pattern of the NTS was based with departing soldiers of the regiment, the play focused on the Swedish Ricks Theater, which is also a non- on the issue of the Iraq war and the role Great Britain building-based company working with partners and and the Scottish soldiers played in it. The performance partnerships with locals and other theatre companies demonstrated the unseen psychological and emotional (Vicky Featherstone, The National Theatre of Scotland, consequences of the war, and presented a view of the Lunchtime Talks, Royal Museum Lecture Theatre, Edin - conflict in opposition to the official British perspective. burgh, 17 August 2006). As a result, the NTS managed to articulate a distinctive 109. McCrone pointed out that ‘the Highlands pro- Scottish voice. As McMillan remarked: ‘Far more vide many of the images and meanings for Scotland as a important, though, is the ground-shaking energy with whole in the late twentieth century. In cultural terms, its which [Black Watch] announces the arrival of the imagery dominates’. See McCrone, op. cit., p. 67, and for National Theatre as a force that can reassert a strong, a detailed analysis of the Highland imagery, p. 132–40; grass-roots Scottish perspective on parts of our story also Edensor, op. cit., p. 139–70. which, until now, have been filtered mainly through 110. McCrone, op. cit., p. 51. institutions of the British state.’ See Joyce McMillan, 111. Featherstone, op. cit. ‘Black Watch’, The Scotsman, 7 August 2006. For reviews 112. Though it is longer than the average rehearsal see Dominic Cavendish, ‘Operation Total Theatre’, The period of three to four weeks in Scottish theatre, it is still Daily Telegraph, 23 August, 2006; and the site of the NTS very short, especially when compared with European at . state-funded repertory theatres with permanent com- 106. Though Neilson’s play concentrated on more panies, where the rehearsal period is usually two to international themes of alienation – ‘the mid-life crisis three months or longer. of a particular demographic of British men’ (Joyce 113. Final Report, op. cit., p. 5.

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