The Great Playwrights - The Project

From the classics to modern drama - if there is such a thing as a cultural canon that binds eastern and western Europe together, that connects the north to the south, then theatre is undoubtedly a fundamental part of it.
Our cultural heritage is indelibly imprinted - shaped indeed - by the words and insights of playwrights like Goethe and Brecht, Molière and Sartre, Shakespeare and Chekhov. They play with collective mythology and create new, universal models and parallel worlds in which our value system can be constantly examined and enhanced – undisturbed by the roar of the everyday.
The tragic fate of Oedipus Rex, Romeo and Juliette’s love that transcends all social barriers, Faust, the modern man quarrelling with science, in whose breast “ah, two souls reside“, and who makes a pact with the devil – these are just three of the many eternal motifs with which the theatre and its authors have endowed us.
But is there a common denominator which unites European culture at its core?
And which of the great playwrights embody or constitute it?
Defining and answering these questions is what “Europe’s Heritage: The Great Playwrights“ is all about - determining which playwright has most significantly moulded Europe’s self-image, and deciding who really has made an enduring contribution to Europe’s heritage.
The scale and cultural weight of this enterprise will not be allowed to mire the project in beard-tugging pomposity. Arriving at the answers – our enquiries aided by the audience - will be an entertaining and insightful journey, undertaken in a spirit of playfulness true to the greatest theatre.


Europe decides - cast your vote!
How will the greatest playwright be determined?
Phase 1: Preparing to establish the Top 50
A list of 50 European playwrights was compiled using a three-pillar model:
1. The frequency with which each playwright’s work is staged throughout Europe.
2. The International Theatre Institute (ITI) acted as the project’s advisors from the very beginning, and drew up a list based on their own assessment.
3. The international Forum of Young Stage Affiliates in Berlin also drew up a list of 50 playwrights.

Phase 2: Choosing the ten greatest playwrights
On the basis of the list of 50, votes were cast for the ten most important European playwrights. Between June and October of 2007, via postcards and the internet, 70,000 people took part in the vote for the ten finalists.

Phase 3: The internet and telephone vote for the greatest playwright
The final ten names will be revealed from July 10th, 2008, on ARTE’s homepage www.arte.tv/playwrights - with an appeal for the public to vote for Europe’s greatest playwright. There will also be the possibility at the grand finale - on September 20th, 2008 - to vote for your personal favourite playwright by telephone.