Nations, identities, and theatres: Reflections on the concepts of national theatre in Europe

Abstract

In my paper I shall investigate the major changes in the concept of the national theatre from the early debates on the Hamburg Theatre in 1767 until the 2005 establishment of the National Theatre of Scotland. The starting assumption is that while in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the notion of the national theatre was regarded as a means for the integration of a nation or even an empire in most Western-European countries, in Eastern-Europe, the debates on and later the realization of the national theatres took place within the context of and against oppressive imperiums. In Eastern Europe, the realization of National Theatre was utilised for representing a unified nation in a virtual way, and its role was to maintain national identity and national culture. In present day Scotland, however, the notion of the national theatre has changed again as the National Theatre is used to represent a diverse and multicultural Scotland.