After Poland joined the European Union in 2004, a new wave of playwriting emerged in response to changing social realities. Natasha Oxley investigates twelve plays which were written during the first decade of Polish EU membership, by key playwrights Pawel Demirski, Malgorzata Sikorska-Miszczuk, Dorota Maslowska, and Przemyslaw Wojcieszek. The analysis reveals a prominence of non-naturalistic approaches and the importance of humour, even when addressing heavy issues. Three major themes are contextualized and evidenced through examples from the plays: dealing with Poland's past in the present, the human body, and social marginalization in contemporary Polish society.
