The Classics Have no Owners; Just Tenants

Theatre, and classic theatre in particular, is not a disembodied observation, a situation-free appraisal of the world; it does not exist in a void; it is directly affected by the vibration between different spaces (politics, economics, popular culture, aesthetics, and personal preferences). That means it is directly affected by change. We all change. Artists change. Nations change. Critics change. Audiences change. The only thing that does not change is change itself. And every time the world changes there is a change both in the way practitioners update, rework, appropriate, re-write, or adapt their material, and in the way viewers, critics and historical communities receive them. Especially nowadays, with national boundaries relativised and national imaginaries and national subjects destabilized, it is only natural to wonder about the future of the Classics, whether there is still any room left for them to step in and make their presence felt, locally or globally; whether they can accommodate the growing diversity of a planet, in which millions of people are crossing boundaries doing business or running away from war zones.

Dealing with the Classics remains an open project, which gradually develops in its own way in the direction of a more decentralized (global) model, more attentive to contact zones and artistic centers that represent more adequately local and foreign determinants. To use Turner’s phrasing, it all looks more like an open borderland activity, an exploration of the liminal fields that may exist “betwitx-and-between” different cultures. And the aim of this paper is to support the idea that says that no one owns the classics. We owe them. And part of our job (as artists, teachers or critics) is to show to all audiences that the revival of classic theatre is about questioning, the risks of daring to question and the responsibilities of those who question. It is to show to others how to appreciate the values of classical theatre and through the appreciation of these values to appreciate communality.