Under Labour, the arts were charged with challenging social exclusion, celebrating diversity and reasserting Britishness. But is there a contradiction between diversity and national identity? Should theatre foster cohesion or challenge it? If multiculturalism is dead, should theatre be promoting it? Is the theatre’s role to encourage tolerance or provoke outrage?

This two-day conference at Warwick Arts Centre, debated theatre’s relationship with the community, with identity politics, with the emergent nationalisms of Scotland and Wales, multiculturalism and our national history.

This conference was produced in partnerhsip with the British Theatre Consortium with support from the University of Warwick and Royal Hollaway.