Identity Issues in the Cypriot Theatre at the Beginning of the 21st Century

Abstract

This paper discusses the ways in which artists experience the issue of national/cultural identity and its connection with language/the Greek Cypriot dialect mainly, during the second decade of the 21st century in Cyprus. Concepts such as hybridity and cultural
identity are discussed. In the 21st century, hybridity and diversity have been largely established in culture, in the arts. Cultural difference becomes a necessary and, above all, desirable phenomenon, whose function is to break myths (national, ideological, etc.).
The search for cultural identity seems to preoccupy mostly the new generation of directors, since the beginning of the second decade of our century. Many artists express their engagement with the national/cultural identity issue in two ways: either through the
theme of the performances or through the use of the Greek Cypriot dialect as the language of the performance. Some productions are indicated as examples.