Edinburgh Napier University

  This study explores the reciprocal relationship between the place Lake Constance and the various types of theatre located in that place. It situates the theatre landscape within the natural, tourist and border landscapes of the region and reflects on the different cultural identities emerging in the theatres as a result of the interaction, or lack of, between these landscapes. It reflects both on the ways in which the region is represented and understood through the construction of certain theatre spaces, the staging of certain plays and the choice of certain repertoires, and on the ways in which theatre is used to alter the landscape physically and symbolically. Where the influence of place is not evident in the theatre landscape, it considers both international or global influences and the extent to which place can be present in its apparent absence.
This research makes two main contributions. Firstly, although the beautiful border region of Lake Constance is a particularly interesting area of the German-speaking world, its theatre landscape remains largely undocumented and unquestioned. Therefore this study maps and presents the theatres in detail, before analysing their relationship to place using theories of nature perception, international borderlands, travel and tourism, and cultural globalisation. Secondly, this research uses detailed empirical data to test these theoretical frameworks. It questions the opposing theses that cultures, including theatres, are either ‘locatable phenomena’ or that they are constantly shifting and changing parts of a series of global ‘flows’ or ‘scapes’. This study therefore presents an argument for the grounding of such theories in empirical research and negotiates a place for the theatre landscape of Lake Constance between the local and the global.