Dramaturgies of Memory: Generative Procedures in the Theatre of Wajdi Mouawad, Oliver Frljić, and Robert Lepage

Abstract

The article examines the artistic approaches of three major contemporary theatre makers – Wajdi Mouawad, Oliver Frljić, and Robert Lepage – whose intercultural backgrounds shape their work. It explores how they challenge the tension between official historical narratives and fragile, subjective personal memory. Drawing on the legacy of ‘memory-theatre’ developed by figures such as Samuel Beckett, Heiner Müller, Ariane Mnouchkine, Hélène Cixous, and Thomas Bernhard, these artists treat memory as a fluid, evolving construct made of texts, images, and narratives. Through this, they create performances in which the real intrudes upon representation, revealing memory as unstable, porous, and politically charged.