John London MA (Oxon.), DPhil
John London teaches at all undergraduate levels in courses on performance analysis and the history of theatre. He currently supervises three doctoral students.
Having studied at the University of Oxford and held teaching posts there, he was Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at the Institut für Theaterwissenschaft, Freie Universität Berlin and then held positions at the University of Wales, Swansea, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Manchester. He worked for two years as an arts critic for the French Section of the BBC World Service and was London correspondent for the Spanish theatre magazine El Público. He is on the editorial board of the monthly magazine Plays International, for which he writes regular reviews.
He has worked as an interpreter for the Refugee Legal Centre and translated dramatic texts from Spanish, Catalan, Romanian, German, Italian, Portuguese and Hebrew. His translations have been performed in theatres in England, Scotland, Ireland, the USA and Canada, as well as BBC Radio 3. He continues to work as a translator and script reader, while his own plays have been performed on the London fringe.
Research interests
Most of John London's research has concentrated on twentieth-century European theatre, sport and the aesthetics of fascism. Following doctoral work on non-Spanish and Spanish drama during the Franco period, later published as Reception and Renewal in Modern Spanish Theatre (1997), he has studied theatre in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. One of the results of this work was Theatre under the Nazis (2000). A particular interest is the history of Catalan theatre on which he has co-edited two books. He is currently engaged in a long-term project on fascist performance in Spain.
His translations range from the annotated edition of the lesser known work of Federico García Lorca (1996) to contemporary Catalan, Romanian, Brazilian and Cuban plays.
Selected publications
La recepció del teatre contemporani, ed. by John London, Ramon Rosselló and Josep Lluís Sirera (Valencia: Universitat de València, 2010).
Contextos de Joan Brossa: l'acció, la imatge i la paraula (Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, 2010). Spanish Film, Theatre and Literature in the Twentieth-Century, ed. by David George and John London (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2007). Theatre under the Nazis, ed. by John London (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000). Modern Catalan Plays, ed. by John London and David George (London: Methuen, 2000). Reception and Renewal in Modern Spanish Theatre: 1939-1963 (London: Modern Humanities Research Association, 1997). The Unknown Federico García Lorca: Dialogues, Dramatic Projects, Unfinished Plays & a Filmscript, ed. & trans. by John London (London: Atlas Press, 1996). Contemporary Catalan Theatre: An Introduction, ed. by David George and John London (Sheffield: Anglo-Catalan Society, 1996). Claves de ‘La verdad sospechosa’ (Madrid: Ciclo Editorial, 1990).