Special Issue: Simon Stephens: British Playwright in Dialogue with Europe, edited by David Barnett
This latest issue of Contemporary Theatre Review collects critical perspectives on the work of contemporary playwright Simon Stephens, with particular focus on his collaborative relationships with directors and the productive exchange between British and European theatre-making practices.

In his Introduction to this issue of Interventions, Adam Alston reflects, post-Brexit, on the prescience of Simon Stephens as an especially European British writer.

Louise LePage uses video as critical medium, assembling a cast of scholars to respond to Billy Smart’s provocation regarding ‘things that always tend to happen in Simon Stephens’ plays’.

Melissa Poll uses this online forum to argue that many criticisms of Stephens’ Three Kingdoms, including the main articles in this special issue, avoid grappling with its ‘modern misogyny’.

Reflecting on her staging of Stephens’ Harper Regan in the United States, Gaye Taylor Upchurch asks: ‘why is a woman with agency still such a scary notion?’

Walter Meierjohann discusses his production of Stephens’ The Funfair for the opening season at HOME, Manchester, in light of nationalist resurgence in the UK.