‘Be Yourself, Inasmuch as it Suits the Job’: ‘Authenticity’ at Berlin’s Maxim Gorki Theater and London’s Royal Court Theatre

Lianna Mark, Emily Goodling

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

This collaborative, comparative article explores a new understanding and valorization of ‘authenticity’ at Berlin’s Maxim Gorki Theater and London’s Royal Court Theater. Evaluating institutional language, marketing, and productions, we interrogate the increasing centrality of a pragmatically oriented staging of ‘authenticity’ at these two theaters. Situating our discussion against ongoing theoretical debates in the British and Germanophone contexts, we argue that the Gorki and Royal Court, while by no means ignoring these debates, ultimately move beyond them to situate a practical or working understanding of authenticity at the heart of their institutional messaging and artistic programming. In contrast to existing scholarship that has sought to analyze authenticity in specific genres or individual productions (Schulze, 2017, Martin, 2003), we examine the role the institution plays in “casting” its performers and writers as authentic even before they step on stage. Our two case studies—the Maxim Gorki’s collaboratively created Roma Armee (2017) and Nicôle Lecky’s Superhoe (2019) at the Royal Court—examine authenticity’s staging, ironically (at the Gorki) or transitively (at the Royal Court), as it creates a platform for “unheard” voices and makes political demands on audiences. In conclusion, we probe the potentially ambiguous implications of this understanding of authenticity on the labor of theater makers.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)39-66
JournalComparative Drama
Volume56
Issue number1&2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of '‘Be Yourself, Inasmuch as it Suits the Job’: ‘Authenticity’ at Berlin’s Maxim Gorki Theater and London’s Royal Court Theatre'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this