Aureliu Manea (1945-2014) was one of the visionaries of the post-war Romanian theatre. Imaginary Performances, his meditations on nineteen of Shakespeare’s plays, was published in Romania in 1986, and is now made available in English for the first time. Although over the course of his career Manea worked across a broad range of classic scripts – from Sophocles through Chekhov and beyond – his first love remained Shakespeare. His productions of Macbeth and Twelfth Night are legendary: Imaginary Performances offers tantalizing glimpses of further Shakespearean productions which might have been, each one designed less to explain a Shakespeare play than to at once fathom and honour its mystery.

Join Manea's sister, Viorica Samson, and his translator Alistair Ian Blyth, in conversation with Michael Dobson, Director of the Shakespeare Institute, as they discuss Romania’s extraordinary contribution to modern Shakespearean performance and Manea's brilliant and enigmatic place within it.

Aureliu Manea: Imaginary Performances in Shakespeare