This volume offers the first comprehensive analysis of the work of East German theatre director Fritz Bennewitz in India between 1970 and 1994. Joerg Esleben has gathered together many of Bennewitz’ own writings, most published for the first time, in which he reflects on his production of plays by Bertolt Brecht, Shakespeare, Goethe, Chekhov, and Volker Braun. By translating these writings into English, the editors have provided unprecedented access to Bennewitz’ thinking about intercultural work in India. This material is illuminated by explanatory annotations, contextualized commentary, and critical perspectives from Bennewitz’s former colleagues in India and other leading scholars. Through its kaleidoscope of perspectives, Fritz Bennewitz in India offers a significant counter to dominant models of Western theatrical interculturalism.

Joerg Esleben is an associate professor and Chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at the University of Ottawa.

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Rolf Rohmer is a Professor Emeritus of Theatre at Leipzig University.

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Rolf Rohmer is a Professor Emeritus of Theatre at Leipzig University.

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Mathias Schulze, James M. Skidmore, David G. John, Grit Liebscher, and Sebastien Siebel-Achenbach are researchers at the Waterloo Centre for German Studies at the University of Waterloo and have published on aspects of German language and linguistics (Liebscher, Schulze), literature and film (John, Skidmore), and history (Siebel-Achenbach).

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"This exhaustively researched book by Joerg Esleben and his group represents the culmination of efforts to document and evaluate Bennewitz’s multifaceted work in India."

German Studies Review, vol 42 no 1, February 2019

"…[offers] detailed instances of how a Western director might think about working in rehearsal across cultural difference."

University of Toronto Quarterly, vol 87 3, Summer 2018