Sports Play

by Elfriede Jelinek
Translated by Penny Black
English Language Premiere

Written in 1998, Sports Play is a post-dramatic text that explores the marketing and sale of the human body and emotions in sport. Jelinek questions contemporary society's obsession with fitness and body image and rejects the romanticised notion of sport portrayed in today’s media. She considers sport as a mass phenomenon and as a medium for chauvinism and fanaticism – sport as war. At the same time, this is one of Jelinek’s most personal plays: she styles herself as ‘Elfie Electra’ and mixes anger with self-irony.

Coinciding with the London 2012 Olympics, this is a rare opportunity to see Jelinek’s work on stage as part of a UK-wide tour.

Elfriede Jelinek is an Austrian novelist, playwright and translator. She is generally un-known outside of the German-speaking world and has only come to prominence in recent years after receiving the nobel prize for Literature in 2004. Her work is celebrated for its determinedly unflinching and honest portrayal of human relationships and the role of the individual within a larger group.