Abstract
The article discusses some of the theatrical strategies that Sarah Ruhl employs in Passion Play (2010) to challenge monolithic descriptions of historical memory and which enable the playwright to bridge the gap between Europe and the United States and between past and present. Drawing on Foucault’s heterotopia and Bakhtin’s heterochrony, this article argues that the three parts of Ruhl’s play are not self-contained plays within the play, but cycles that show space and time as part of the continuum of memory that shapes her characters’ identity. Among the strategies Ruhl employs in Passion Play, especial emphasis is put on the analysis of her use of metatheatre to discuss the importance of inherited role models in identity formation and the role of political leaders in manipulating their subjects’ identity, a fact that, Ruhl seems to acknowledge, is what has marked our history, in Europe as in the United States.
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