EASTAP 2026 Annual Conference
Waiting for the Barbarians
Conference programme (Preliminary Version)
Pre-Conference Day
Tuesday, 22 September
Venue: Kunstkantine, Machinefabriek
From 10:00 Registration
11:00-13:00 European Journal of Theatre and Performance (EJTP) Editorial Meeting
13:00-15:00 EASTAP ExCom Meeting (ExCom members only)
Wednesday, 23 September – Saturday 26 September
Paper Panels and artistic events
Each panel is marked with a letter and a number (e.g. T.1): the letter indicates the thematic thread (T for Temporalities of Affect, M for Medialities of Waiting, W for Who is the Barbarian?, C for Collective Futures), and the number indicates the session within that thread.
Day 1
Wednesday 23 September
From 9:00 Registration and coffee
Kunstkantine, Machinefabriek
9:30-10:00 Conference opening: Welcome by EASTAP President and the Groningen Organizing Team
Zaal 1, Machinefabriek
10:30-12:45 Paper Panels
Panel T.1
Wenjun (June) Zhu: Waiting for Reform: Self and Other, Suspension and Progression in Chinese Adaptations of Waiting for Godot
Hossein Oroumiehchiha: Waiting and Suspension in The Seagull: Failures, Trauma, and the Dramaturgical Power of Deferred Action
Jasper Delbecke: When Nothing Arrives: Revisiting the Work of Nick Steur and Schwalbe in Times of Disordered Attention
Luule Epner: Waiting for Destruction: Lauri Lagle’s Leviathan
Panel M.1
Alix De Morant: The Return of Frank(enstein)
Vito Lentini: Raymonda, a Medieval Narrative of Waiting
Katje Schneider: Waiting in the Whiteness of Black: Simone Forti’s The Bear in the Mirror
Annelies Van Assche: Le Foyer de la Danse 2.0: Old Histories, New Precarities
Panel W.1
Natassa Siouzouli: The Advent of the Object, or: Waiting for the Subject to Vanish: Performance, Power, and Persistence
Kamila Mamadnazarbekova: Beaufs, Barbarians, and Trans Performativity
Lodi Rizzini: Ritual Temporalities and Queer Fugitivity in the Performative Practice of Va Bene
Richie Lux Kramár: Meditations in an Emergency: The Operatic Prompter and the Dramaturgies of Suspension
Panel C.1
Franco Arabia: The Barbarian Waits: Mechanism for Destabilizing the Self
Benedetta Bronzini: Blue-Eyed Ali in Contemporary Theater and Performance: Fearing and Awaiting the Barbarian Otherness
Valentina Temussi: Waiting as Political Time: Vigilance, Witnessing, and the Civil Theatre of Marco Paolini
Catriona Craig: Deferred Arrival: (In)Action, Ethical Dramaturgy, and Agonistic Solidarity
Lunch Break
Kunstkantine, Machinefabriek
14:00-15:45 Paper Sessions
Panel T.2
Grace Joseph: On Deferral: Waiting and Resisting in Disability-led Theatre
Alex Norton: Bodies of Punishment: Performing Tragic Otherness in Applied Prison Theatre
Simone Chiachiarrelli: Beginnings as Relational Devices: Reconfiguring Waiting and Crip Time in Bersani’s Performances
Keiu Virro: Co-creating Accessible Theatre: A Culture Hackathon as Action Research
Panel M.2
Marilena Zaroulia: “The Barbarians Are Already Inside:” Performing a Decolonial Europe in Hew Locke’s The Procession (2022)
Liesbeth Groot Nibbelink and Sigrid Merx: Simulation, Speculation and Dramaturgies of Suspension in Sic Transit Gloria Mundi
Ana Maria Ursu: Art-tivism in Post-socialism
Fernando Matos Oliveira: Between Sleep and Laziness: Revisiting the ‘Politics of Installation’
Panel W.2
Mary Mazzilli: ‘Masculine Barbarians’ on the Contemporary London Stage: Dramaturgies of Suspension and Toxic Masculinity
Jetë Zhitia: Desire Deferred: Phèdre and the Dramaturgy of Waiting
Yanna Kor: Woman in Waiting in Contemporary Theatre
Tessa Vannieuwenhuyze: What’s in the Waiting Queue? Tracing Trackmaturgy in the Theatre
Panel C.2
Dimitris Papanikolaou: On the Political Technologies of Waiting: C. P. Cavafy’s Ethical Citizenship
Alexandra Marinho de Oliveira: The Poetics of Waiting in Brecht: A Dialogue with Walter Benjamin on the Barbarian and Critical Interruption
Elodie Verlinden: Suspending the Horizon: Whiteout, Signification, and the Dramaturgy of
Deferred Eventuality in Dehors est blanc (Tumbleweed)
Marcela Moura: The Mangrove as Barbaricum: A Model for the Creation of a Complex Stage
Coffee break
Kunstkantine, Machinefabriek
16:00-16:30 EASTAP Statement
Zaal 1, Machinefabriek
16:30-17:45 Keynote 1 by Maria Boletsi (University of Leiden / University of Amsterdam)
‘Waiting for the Barbarians’ as Political Stage: From Modernist Suspension to Polycrisis, Defeat and Radical Hope
Zaal 1, Machinefabriek
18:15-19:15 Reception
Grand Theatre Groningen
19:15-20:15: Dinner on your own
20:30: Helstone & Het Pand der Goden van Mathieu Wijdeven, Theater Rotterdam
Grand Theatre Groningen
Day 2
Thursday 24 September
From 9:00 Registration
Kunstkantine, Machinefabriek
10:00-11:15 Keynote 2 by Emma Cox (Royal Holloway, University of London)
Reparation, Temporality, and Response: Awaiting the Law after Migration Fatalities
Location T.B.A.
Coffee break
Kunstkantine, Machinefabriek
11:30-13:15 Paper Sessions
Panel T.3
Matilde Ghelardini: Presence through Absence: Silence, Memory, and Waiting in the Theatre of Gabriel Marcel
Suzanne Knip-Mooij: “This Strange Loop is Endless, Eternal:” On the Vibrancy of Suspended Temporalities in Susanne Kennedy’s Theatrical Trilogy
Paul Geary: (Not) Knowing the Future: Awaiting, Anticipating, and Staging Futurity in Ontroerend Goed’s World Without Us (2016)
Silvia Dumitriu: The Barbarian: Turning the Spectator into a Sovereign Witness
Panel M.3
Henriëtte Rietveld: Translating Early Modern Barbar(it)y
Margharita Laera: Leaving the Barbarians Out of the Curriculum? The Role of International Drama in UK Drama Education in Schools
Kasia Lech and Claire French: No More Surtitles? Materiality and Linguistic Citizenships of the Global East
Panel W.3
Hossein Tavazoni and Eleftheria Ioannidou: Ancient Barbarians in Modern Cultural Imaginaries
Katerina Kara: Waiting for Civilization: Foreign Actresses, Operetta, and Cultural Anticipation in the Eastern Mediterranean (1900-1940)
Deimantė Dementavičiūtė-Stankuvienė: Between Civilization and Barbarians: The Postcolonial Hero in Post-Soviet Lithuanian Theatre
Tancredi Gusman: Waiting for Performance to Come Documentation and Reactivation between Past and Future
Panel C.3
Lisa Skwirblies: Performing Staatsräson: Cultural Freedom, Barbarism, and the Cancellation of Wajdi Mouawad’s Birds of a Kind in Munich
Lily Climenhaga: Post-Patriarchy?: Institutionalized Misogyny, The Brotherhood (2024), and Carolina Bianchi’s Critique of European Theatre’s Patriarchy Problem
Sandra Grehn: Searching for Memory, Barbarian Acts and New Possible Futures in Angered Theatre’s production Omelas (2025), inspired by Ursula K. Le Guin’s Sci-fi Novella The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas
Rita Agatina Di Leo: Waiting for a No-form of Censorship: Sorry, Boys By Marta Cuscunà
13:15-14:30 Lunch Break
Kunstkantine, Machinefabriek
14:00-16:15 Paper Sessions
Panel T.4
Frithwin Wagner-Lippok: On the Affectivity of Waiting: Phenomenological Aspects of Waiting Using the Example of Kae Tempest’s Let Them Eat Chaos
Dick Zijp: Laughing at the Barbarians: Stand-up Comedy, Truth-Telling, and Situated Knowledges
David Roesner: The Comedy of Waiting: Musicality, Rhythm, and Political Expectation in Weimar Germany
Jurgita Staniškytė: From Durational Performances to Comic Pranksters: Repertoires of Protest: Lithuanian Case
Panel M.4
Sotera Fornaro and Raffaela Viccei: When the Other Is Oneself: Waiting for Oedipus with Bob Wilson and Ulrich Rasche
Armando Rotondi: Waiting for the Machine: Guy Bar-Amotz and the Performative Barbarian
Rūta Mažeikienė: Performing AI-Augmented Dramaturgy: Between Human and Machine
Oana Marin: Post-Barbarian Culture: Vampire Castles, Festival Capital, and the Ingestion-Expulsion Cycle
Panel W.3
Anneli Saro and Hedi-Liis Toome: Decolonizing moments in the Russian Theatre in Estonia
Ermina Apostolaki: The Barbarian Within: Durational Labour and the Suspension of Event in Pleno
Andrea Cominetti: Configurations of Waiting on the Stage: Carlo Quartucci’s Directions of Waiting for Godot (1959-1964)
Merilin Jürjo: Us vs Others: The Role of Theatre in Reinforcing Beliefs
Panel C.4
Andy Lavender: Performance Temporalities in the Face of Doom
Paula Gomes Magalhães: Active Waiting: Political Urgency and Vigilance in Portuguese Revue Theatre (1974–1975)
Ljubiša Matić: Coutdown to Shutdown
Lukáš Kubina: Waiting for the Barbarian to Slip: Political Authenticity, Performative Breakdown, and the Dramaturgy of Anticipation
16:15-17:00 Light pre-performance snack
Kunstkantine, Machinefabriek
Performance Evening
17:30-18:30: Discussion with Guy Weizman, Richard Guérin (Orange Mountain Music), Klaus Bertisch (dramaturge), and Alice Farnham (conductor)
Stadsschouwburg Groningen
19:00: Dress Rehearsal Waiting for the Barbarians, Nederlandse Reisopera coproduction with Club Guy & Roni
Duration: 2 hours and 45 minutes (please note this is a dress rehearsal – timings may vary)
Stadsschouwburg Groningen
Day 3
Friday, 25 September
From 8:45 Registration
Kunstkantine, Machinefabriek
9:00-10:15 Paper Sessions
Panel T.5
William McEvoy: Electra’s Active Waiting and the Expressive Contradictions of Grief
Panel of 3 papers - Róisín O’Gorman, Helena Buffery, and Roskana Niewadzsiz: Waiting, Wanting and Wailing: Exploring Translation, Memory, and Mourning through Re-imagining and Embodying the Other
Panel M.5
Burcu Guney Yilmaz: Matrixial Temporality: Cultural Borderspaces and Time-Wealth Equity
Panel of 3 papers – Rebecca Brinch, Ylva Lorentzon, and Anna Lund: Transforming Imaginaries: Institutional Dramaturgies for Civil Resilience
Panel W.5
Eva-Liisa Linder: Same Waiting, Different Welcomes: Political Theatre and Democratic Transition in Estonia
Alena Dvorakova: Waiting for the Hero of Resistance to Turn a Traitor
Cláudia Madeira and Raquel Rodrigues Madeira: What are We Waiting for? We, the Barbarians!: A “Resistance Manual for 2050” (2025), by Ana Borralho and João Galante.
Miran Bulut: The Future Is No Longer What It Used to Be: Dramaturgies of Waiting in
Contemporary Turkish Theatre
Panel C.5
Thomas Riccio: The Barbarian Within: Cosmocentric Dramaturgies of Suspension and Transformation
Martin Bernátek: Choreopolitics of Red Vienna
Paulo Filipe Monteiro: Bluebeard, the Homemade Barbarian
Marta Brites Rosa: Rehearsing Freedom: When the Audience Became the Event
Coffee break
Kunstkantine, Machinefabriek
10:30-11:45 Paper Sessions
Panel T.6
Panel of 4 papers – Katarzyna Waligóra, Monika Kwaśniewska-Mikuła, Kasia Lech, and Marta Keil: Theatre Studies After #MeToo: Polish Perspective
Panel M.6
Panel of 4 papers – Irene Alcubilla Troughton, Maaike Bleeker, Soyun Jang, Laura Karreman, Soyun Jang, and Ruowen Xu: The Robots are Coming: Affect, Attunement and Imagination in Human-Robot Encounters
Panel W.6
Aylwyn Walsh: An elegy for Elegy
Maíra Santos: Cronopolitics of Waiting: Unlearning the Barbarian Within the Imperial Gaze
Steff Nellis: Between Barbarian and Performer: The Question of Colonial Theatricality in Bernard and Picart’s Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses des peuples idolatres (1728)
Philip Hager: Temporalities of Impasse and Deferral in post-2010 Greece: Late Night and Antonio or the Message
Panel C.6
Yağmur Atlar: Waiting for the Audience: Empowering Silence in Tim Crouch’s Plays
Arianna Frattali: Suspended Time: Dramaturgies of Waiting in Robert Wilson’s Odyssey
Cock Dieleman: Het wachten van / op Jetse Batelaan
Małgorzata Budzowska: Standby: On the Need for Barbaric Art in Times of War
12:00-13:15 Artist Panel
Guy Weizman & Roni Haver (EASTAP Associate Artists)
Zaal 1
Lunch break
Kunstkantine, Machinefabriek
13:15-14:30 ESF Lunch Panel on Academic Publishing
Kunstkantine, Machinefabriek
14:15-15:30 Keynote 3 by Sruti Bala (University of Amsterdam)
All the Arms we Need: on the Normalization of Militarization in the European Cultural Realm
Zaal 1
15:30-16:30 Artist Panel
Chokri Ben Chikha (RUG-Associated Artist)
Action Zoo Humain
Zaal 1, Machinefabriek
16:30-17:15 Performance Lectures
Agata Tomšič: Can a Barbarian Change the Society We Live in through a Violent and Radical act of Rebellion?
Kate Holden: Slowly: Vocalizations of Barbarism
Zaal 1, Machinefabriek
Christina Schmutz: Those Times Are Gone: A Lecture Performance on the Paradoxical Relationship of Restlessness in Theatre Art and Politics
Theron Schmidt: Waiting for Emergence: Performing Non-linear Classrooms
Location T.B.A.
17:15-19:00 Dinner on your own
19:00-19:45 Artist Talks and Drinks
Grand Theatre Groningen
20:00 Triple Bill: Nik Rajsek KINK, Sanam Tahmasebi, ShELFISH - Archive of a Lonely Body
Grand Theatre Groningen
Day 4
Saturday 26 September
From 9:00 Registration
Kunstkantine, Machinefabriek
9:15-10:30 Paper Sessions
Panel W.7
Sanita Duka: Un Barbare à Paris: Left-Wing Cosmopolitanism, Estrangement, and the Barbarian Gaze
Caterina Piccione: “Où le soleil tue les questions:” Waiting, Alterity, and the Need for Meaning in Camus’s Le Malentendu
Alisa Zhiliaeva: The Silence of Waiting
Hagström-Ståhl: ‘Traumatic Realism’ and the Scene of Memory: Time and Temporality in the Plays of Charlotte Delbo
Panel C.7
Cristina Modreanu: Liminal States: History as Reenactment in Intermedial Productions by Milo Rau and Radu Jude
Eva-Liisa Linder: Same Waiting, Different Welcomes: Political Theatre and Democratic Transition in Estonia
José Pedro Sousa: Barbarian Intermissions: Modalities of Cultural Resistance in 17th century Theatre in Portugal
Ewa Bal: Theatrical akēdía is a Resistance Strategy in Response to Challenges of Patriotism, Heroism and Capitalism
Coffee break
Kunstkantine, Machinefabriek
10:45-11:15 Staged Reading
Children is All by James Purdy
Yuankun Zhou, Grace Kavanagh, Jonna Wikström, Eros Chien, Jonathan Veenhuijsen, Senna de Groot, and Felicia Koops
Theater de Steeg
11:15-12:15 Performance demonstrations by Groningen-based artists
Theater de Steeg
Coffee break
Kunstkantine, Machinefabriek
12:15-13:15 EASTAP AGM Meeting and Plenary
Open to all EASTAP Members
Kunstkantine, Machinefabriek
Light lunch and World Café
Kunstkantine, Machinefabriek