Creative Appropriations: Everyman on the Contemporary Stage

The morality tale Everyman has in recent years seen a notable renaissance in contemporary theater: Everybody (2017) by US American playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Carol Ann Duffy’s adaptation of Everyman (2015) at the National Theatre in London, and director/playwright Milo Rau’s work Everywoman (2020) have turned to it. In this article, I conceptualize these theatrical works as creative appropriations which stage the vexing relation between canonical text and contemporary theater practice. They are marked by an ambivalent dynamic in that they are far less conclusive about their own return to and reworking of the literary source. Their mode of representation oscillates between adaptation, appropriation, and playful de- and reconstruction. Despite evident contrasts in theme and form, these works openly reference their literary source and draw destabilizing effects from their montage of different modes of language and writing (citational speech, self-narration, confession) and performative elements. As I argue, however, these productions cannot be easily aligned with postdramatic theory’s advocation of a deconstructivist approach towards the dramatic text. The text, rather, is treated as an archive of poetic figures, narrative ideas, and moral concerns. In these productions, the textual material is not deconstructed but rather blended, momentarily decentered, and interwoven with vital performative elements (media, dance, collective speaking) which allows each creative appropriation to explore how canonical literary sources may speak to our contemporary culture and society.