On Leaving Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium

Abstract

Eugenio Barba’s letter of farewell to several main responsibilities for the Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium in which the Odin Teatret was deeply rooted was not altogether unexpected, but came as a jolt, nevertheless. Eugenio has served for more than two decades as a contributing editor of NTQ, sending us such marvellous pieces as those to be found in NTQ 86 (2006) and issue 102 (2010), which complement his prolific writing. The latter, crowned by The Five Continents of Theatre and written with long-term co-author Nicola Savarese (English edition, 2019), is another of the rich, multifarious activities that he initiated and steered through with his tireless ensemble of actors and other devoted collaborators to world renown. The unique and diverse achievements of this group are widely known and can be gleaned from Eugenio’s modest account below, but also from NTQ articles, which focus on specific aspects of his massive contribution. So we meet him in the journal’s pages in conversation on his early innovations with Maria Shevtsova (NTQ 90, 2007), Erik Exe Christoffersen’s discussion of the Eurasian Ur-Hamlet (94, 2008) and Shevtsova’s and contributing editor Ian Watson’s records of the fiftieth anniversary of the Festuge, which the Laboratorium creates with the communities of Holstebro (119, 2014; 122, 2015). Eugenio’s letter of love and solidarity for and with the theatre is by no means his last act, and we look forward to his continuing collaboration with NTQ.