Artistic media seem to be in a permanent condition of mutation and transformation. Contemporary artists often investigate the limits and possibilities of the media they use and experiment with the crossing, upgrading and mutilation of media. Others explicitly explore the unknown intermedial space between existing media, searching for the hybrid beings that occupy these in-betweens. This issue of Theater Topics explores the theme of mutating and adapting media in its relation with theatre and performance.

Bringing together international scholars and artists, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the subject. Throughout, Bastard or Playmate? is responsive to the cross-disciplinary use of key concepts such as remediation, digitization, interactivity, corporeality, liveness, surveillance, spectacle, performativity and theatricality. The book guides readers new to the area of intermediality, as well as experienced researchers into one of the most dynamic fields of scholarship.

Bastard or Playmate? Adapting Theatre, Mutating Media and the Contemporary Performing Arts is the fifth issue of the series Theater Topics. This series contains publications about research in and about theatre, each issue giving a comprehensive overview of research concerning a specific topic.

This issue contains contributions by Katia Arfara, Edwin Carels, Jeroen Coppens, Nancy Delhalle, Tom Engels, Christophe Van Gerrewey, Eva Heisler, Evelien Jonckheere, Sarah Kenderdine and Jeffrey Shaw, Elise Morrison, Marco Pustianaz, Frederik Le Roy, Anna Teresa Scheer, Klaas Tindemans, and Nele Wynants.