Dramatic Disturbance

Mark Ravenhill, UK playwright and chair of the 2008 forum for young European playwrights, recounts his recent experience of nearly getting arrested in a suburban German park. Read a brief excerpt below and the full commentary here.

"I've decided to keep the meetings simple. Each playwright - the majority of them are under 30 - has already had a play produced in their own country. For our sessions, these have been translated into English, which we use as a lingua franca. We discuss not only the plays, but also the wider issues of playwriting, politics and art in each dramatist's country. Although we're all talking in a careful, hesitant manner that we quickly dub "conference English", our 10 days of discussions prove incredibly exciting. It's striking how different the cultural traditions and expectations of each country are."