Panel Discussion: The Adaptation of Novels in Contemporary Theatre

Panel discussion in English featuring dramaturge and author Maja Zade, actors from the ensemble of »Orlando« and members of the Cluster of Excellence »Temporal Communities. Doing Literature in a Global Perspective« (FU Berlin)
Free admission

The panel will discuss the relationship between film, theatre and literature in Katie Mitchell’s production »Orlando« and reflect on the tendency in contemporary theatre to adapt novels and other narrative texts.

Adapted from Virginia Woolf’s novel, Katie Mitchell’s production »Orlando« brings to the stage a titular character defined by permanent transformation, a figure who navigates through time, space and gender identities. In light of the Cluster’s research agenda, the play’s combination of Orlando’s fluid and temporally expansive identity with the multiple entanglements of film, theatre and literature in the production appears particularly interesting. How is literature represented and at the same time transformed in the mise-en-scène? How do film and theatre alter Orlando’s literary persona?

The Cluster of Excellence »Temporal Communities: Doing Literature in a Global Perspective« aims to re-conceptualise literature in a global perspective, positing that temporal entanglements crucially contribute to how literature becomes global. The Cluster investigates the ways in which literature reaches out through space and time, thinking literature as a transnational and transcultural phenomenon that is significantly constituted by practices. How does literature generate and re-shape collective and individual identities? How do different media define the notion of literature in specific periods and contexts? In which way do ›temporal communities‹ account for the production, reception and tradition of literature?

The discussion is part of the Cluster’s Grand Opening Event (24 to 26 October, 2019). For further information, see temporal-communities.de.