Theatrical Nationhood: Crisis on the National Stage

Abstract

In’ state and Society, 1880–1930’, Stuart Hall and Bill Schwarz argue that ‘crises occur when the social formation can no longer be reproduced on the basis of the pre-existing system of social relations’ (1985: 9), applying this thought to the late nineteenth-century crisis of capitalism in Britain. The precarious development of the National Theatre of Great Britain (NT), from a contentious nineteenth-century idea to one of the best-resourced cultural institutions in the country, is an uneven story that resonates with their insight. This discussion explores aspects of that story, examining it through the lens of transnationalism and Europe. In that spirit, I begin a thousand miles from London, with a walk in Barcelona, in September 2013, to the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya (TNC). The TNC opened in 1997 and, like the NT, is a European national theatre established well after their proliferation in the nineteenth century (Carlson 2008: 22). The route to Catalonia’s national theatre from Monumental metro station runs past La Monumental, a gigantic former bullfighting arena from which the station takes its name. Established in 1914, La Monumental sits adjacent to a somewhat pedestrian-unfriendly dual carriageway. Modelled strikingly on the neo-Mudéjar and Byzantine styles of the ‘Moorish revival’ (Ijeh 2011), its ornate turrets and arches recall a much earlier period of political struggle, conquest and cultural exchange between Islamic and Christian empires² — a complex history which, as Deepa Kumar shows, gives the lie to the reductive contemporary discourse of a trans-historical ‘“clash of civilizations”’ between ‘East’ and ‘West’ that underscores Islamophobia in the post 9/11 context (2012: 3).

Many thanks to the editors and to Tony Fisher, Aoife Monks and Emily Senior for their feedback on this article, and to Maria Delgado for her help in translating the TNC banners.