Whether you viewed it as a fresh front in the culture wars or merely a tempest in a teacup, the recent controversy over a shift in funding for the Shakespeare Globe Centre New Zealand was more evidence the country’s national culture is undergoing something of an identity crisis.
Behind the row lay an unanswered question: how does a post-settler, multicultural society create a national identity? This latest case put a spotlight on the performance arts in this evolving cultural debate. This raises its own question: what can theatre contribute to the nurturing of our national identity?
