In Praise of Diasporas

The history of Jewish novelists has been a history of emigration: of exile and translation. From Kafka to Italo Svevo, from Isaac Bashevis Singer to Saul Bellow, Jewish novelists have often been marked by a cultural and linguistic cosmopolitanism. But what is the value of displacement? of memory? The director of Complicite who adapted Bruno Schulz' s Street of Crocodiles to the stage will discuss these themes with Adam Thirlwell.

Simon McBurney studied at Cambridge and trained in Paris. Co-founder and Artistic Director of Complicite with whom he has devised, directed and acted in over 30 Complicite productions and has collaborated on diverse projects including The Vertical Line for Artangel with John Berger in the Aldwych Tube, French and Saunders Live in 2000, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui in New York with Al Pacino in the title role, and Lenny Henry's West End debut, So Much Things To Say. For Complicite he most recently directed A Disappearing Number at the Barbican, Measure for Measure and A Minute Too Late at the National Theatre, Strange Poetry (created for the Los Angeles Philarmonic Orchestra in LA), and The Elephant Vanishes (co-produced with Setagaya Public Theatre, Tokyo). As an actor Simon has performed extensively for theatre, radio, film and TV. Feature films include Sleepy Hollow, Kafka, Tom and Viv, Being Human, Cousin Bette, Onegin, Morality Play, Bright Young Things, The Human Touch, The Reckoning, and most recently The Manchurian Candidate, Friends with Money and The Last King of Scotland.

Adam Thirlwell was born in 1978 and grew up in North London. He is a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford and assistant editor of Areté magazine. His first novel, Politics, a love story with digressions, was published in 2003, and his essay, Miss Herbert, in 2007.
In 2003, both Adam Thirlwell was named by Granta magazine as one of twenty 'Best of Young British novelists'.

Rachel Lasserson is the editor of the Jewish Quarterly. She is a respected writer, journalist and critic. She comes from a broad arts background of music and theatre.

In association with the Jewish Quarterly: /www.jewishquarterly.org