Monica Cristini, La MaMa Experimental Theatre – A Lasting Bridge Between Cultures

This review essay discusses the monograph La MaMa Experimental Theatre – A Lasting Bridge Between Cultures (Routledge 2024) written by Monica Cristini. This book gives an account of the early days of La MaMa Theatre in New York and the dialogue with avant-garde theatres in Europe that was forged in an era spanning 1961-75. La MaMa founder Ellen Stewart is discussed as a pioneering figure not only in her founding of this off-off Broadway theatre in the East Village New York, but also as a keen supporter of artistic exchange between experimental theatre makers in New York and western and eastern Europe. Stewart termed this exchange “cross-pollination”. Cristini’s book is an exhaustive history of the fruits of this, seen principally in the rise of a visceral and intimate avant-garde performance style that transformed the contemporary theatre landscape. Cristini’s work explores the constellation of artists coming from the United States and Europe – some well-known, some who have remained in the theatrical underground – who were important in the development of the multifaceted experiential theatre of the 1960s and 1970s. KEYWORDS: La MaMa Theatre; avant-garde theatre; Ellen Stewart, Tom O’Horgan; Andrei Serban; Jerzy Grotowski; Eugenio Barba; Peter Brook