ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the potential for dramatic aesthetics to contribute to contemporary discourses of globalization, arguing that writing for the stage provides a productive field for spatial experimentation. It takes as its example the work of German playwright and director Falk Richter, who focuses largely on the problematic impact of globalization and neoliberalism on Europe’s societies. The chapter shows that this criticism manifests itself in a characteristic spatial aesthetic pervading Richter’s plays which can only be analysed by focusing on the dynamic processes of theatrical space production, rather than understanding this space as stable entity. Therefore, the chapter concentrates on two of Richter’s works: Electronic City (2003), a love story set in the non-places of a world dominated by communication technologies, and Safe Places (2016), an international collaboration with the Dutch choreographer Anouk van Dijk that addresses the challenges of an open society in Europe. However, despite this criticism of globalization’s identity-destabilizing outcomes Richter’s theatrical work is based to a great extent on collaborations that are themselves dependent on this very process of globalization. The chapter ends by briefly discussing possibilities and limitations of critique of globalization in a theatre system that itself is increasingly characterized by internationalization.
