Introduction

Intercultural theatre projects that originate in the west tend to focus on aesthetics first and politics second, almost as an after-thought or superficially. Interculturalism all too frequently is perceived to become ‘political’ only when a critic complains about (mis)representations of otherness or appropriations of culture. Feminist theatre, meanwhile, usually operates in reverse: the political imperative that underpins feminism – women’s equality to men – is the starting point for feminist performance. When women produce intercultural theatre, they frequently

begin from the point where cultures meet to speak about women. In the following pages we explore numerous examples in which intercultural performance by women is refracted through culture and gender, or how the self meets the other (in terms of both gender and culture) in theatre.