Theater of War and Exile: Twelve Playwrights, Directors and Performers from Eastern Europe and Israel

In what ways does political trauma influence the shapes of theater art inspired by it? Can one speak of an aesthetic of war and exile in theatrical works that have emerged from such experiences? And are there cultural markers that define such works from the areas of Eastern Europe and Israel? These are the question at the core of Radulescu’s examinations of plays, performances and theater artists that speak from a place of political violence and/or displacement. Radulescu’s critical explorations stretch out across a wide variety of theatrical experimentations from the use of Brechtian distancing, to black humor and pastiche, from carnivalesque reversals and surreal or hyper-real images to reversed chronologies and disrupted narratives. Relying on postmodern theories and performance studies, as well as gathering a large amount of interviews and personal statements from the artists discussed, this study offers a vibrant and extensive testimony to the transformative powers of theater arts as well as to their function of catalysts for social change, healing and remembrance. It also speaks of the ability of live performance to help us find meaning after trauma.