'One in four people in Germany today have a so-called migration background, however, the relationship between theatre and migration there has only recently begun to take centre stage. Indeed, fifty years after large-scale Turkish labour migration to the Federal Republic of Germany began, theatre by Turkish-German artists is only now becoming a consistent feature of Germany’s influential state-funded theatrical landscape. Drawing on extensive archival and field work, this book asks where, when, why, and how plays engaging with the new realities of “postmigrant” Germany have been performed over the past 30 years. Focusing on plays by renowned artists Emine Sevgi Özdamar, and Feridun Zaimoglu/Günter Senkel, it asks which new realities have been scripted in the theatrical sphere in the process – in the imaginations of playwrights, readers, audience members; in the enactment and direction of scripts on stage; and in the performance of new institutional approaches and cultural policies.Highlighting the role this theatre has played in a larger, ongoing re-scripting of the German stage, this study presents a critical perspective on contemporary European theatre and opens innovative developments in the conceptualization of theatre and post/migration from the German context to English language readers.

“Performing New German Realities is a read for anyone who is interested in a fuller picture of German theater from its margins.” (Azadeh Sharifi, EuropeNow, europenowjournal.org, February 21, 2023)

Lizzie Stewart is a Lecturer at King’s College London, UK. She has previously held positions at University of Edinburgh, St Andrews, and Cambridge, all UK. Her work operates primarily at the intersection of Modern Languages, Migration Studies, and Theatre and Performance, and has focused on the relationship between labour migration and cultural production.