Dramaturgy as a Contemporary Art, Part Jenya stashkov for NNC Gallery London Project

Jenya Stashkov
Jul 7, 2023
2 min read

Hi, how long have you been going to the theatre? Have you read any contemporary plays for a long time? Contemporary drama is the territory of freedom, paradoxes, and discoveries. A truly contemporary play can create a new kind of theatre and invent a new way of human existence. This is the deep relationship between contemporary theatre (a seemingly conservative phenomenon) and contemporary art (a seemingly absolutely non-theatrical phenomenon). Seven years ago, I came up with an international drama competition — the "Neem" improper drama award. Every year I look for strange, mysterious, incomprehensible, and impossible plays. There is only one nomination in my competition: "a play that no one will ever agree to stage." This year I am summarising the results of the competition for the fifth time, and I want to publish the plays from the shortlist. Four contemporary plays are offered for your attention. Go.

Fluxus Workbook

by Aurora Behlke

A visual epic dramatic poem about futility and obsession, it breaks down into several levels of anxiety while at the same time being very light and touching.

Intentional Drowning

by John Minigan

A libretto for a mystical choir experiencing the horror of a catastrophe simultaneously with a spiritual uplift from empathy for historical events of universal scale.

Feinting Couch

by T. Adamson

Scattered, fragmented, inverted, scattered into words, the dramatic intention of self-discovery in a timeless disciplinary hell The impossibility of being alone comes from people being really alone with the fate of the disease.

Stains

by Django

The play is about visualising the creations of the mind of an unsettled person in life. The aesthetic tension between fear and curiosity, the aesthetics of horror, and the neverendless boredom of reality