Social and Political Theatre in 21st-Century Britain

Staging Crisis

Vicky Angelaki (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

280 Seiten

2017
Methuen Drama (Verlag)
978-1-4742-1316-5 (ISBN)

Artikel merken

In a context of financial crisis that has often produced a feeling of identity crisis for the individual, the theatre has provided a unifying forum, treating spectators as citizens. This book critically deals with representative plays and playwrights who have stood out in the UK and internationally in the post-recession era, delivering theatre that in the process of being truthful to the contemporary experience has also redefined theatrical form and content.

Built around a series of case-studies of seminal contemporary plays exploring issues of social and political crisis, the volume is augmented by interviews with UK and international directors, artistic directors and the playwrights whose work is examined. As well as considering UK stage productions, Angelaki analyses European, North American and Australian productions, of post-2000 plays by writers including: Caryl Churchill, Mike Bartlett, Dennis Kelly, Simon Stephens, Martin Crimp, debbie tucker green, Duncan Macmillan, Nick Payne and Lucy Prebble.

At the heart of the analysis and of the plays discussed is an appreciation of what interconnects artists and audiences, enabling the kind of mutual recognition that fosters the feeling of collectivity. As the book argues, this is the state whereby the theatre meets its social imperative by eradicating the distance between stage and spectator and creating a genuinely shared space of ideas and dialogue, taking on topics including the economy, materialism, debt culture, the environment, urban protest, social media and mental health. Social and Political Theatre in 21st-Century Britain demonstrates that such contemporary playwriting invests in and engenders moments of performative reciprocity and spirituality so as to present the audience with a cohesive collective experience.

Vicky Angelaki is Associate Professor of Theatre at the University of Reading, UK. She has published extensively on modern and contemporary British and European theatre and her research focuses on internationalism, translation, adaptation, philosophy, spectatorial perception, and the politics of experimental performance. Major publications include The Plays of Martin Crimp: Making Theatre Strange (2012) and Contemporary British Theatre: Breaking New Ground (2013).

Acknowledgements
Introduction: Theatres of Crisis
1. Too Much Information: Caryl Churchill and Post-millennial Angst
2. Occupy the Audience: Mike Bartlett and the Collectivity of Resistance
3. Defined by Debt: Dennis Kelly and Capitalist Dependencies
4. Austerity VS Prosperity: Duncan Macmillan, Nick Payne and the Economy of Emotion
5. Utopia to Dystopia: Martin Crimp and the Illusion of Insularity
6. The Darkness within: Simon Stephens and the Depth of Melancholy
7. Residues of Violence: debbie tucker green and Desolate Urban Landscapes
8. Trials of Happiness: Lucy Prebble and the Human Experiment
Conclusion
Epilogue
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	23.02.2017
Reihe/Serie	Methuen Drama Engage
Mitarbeit	Herausgeber (Serie): Prof. Enoch Brater, Mark Taylor-Batty
Verlagsort	London
Sprache	englisch
Maße	138 x 216 mm
Gewicht	327 g
Themenwelt	Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Theater / Ballett
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Anglistik / Amerikanistik
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturwissenschaft
ISBN-10	1-4742-1316-2 / 1474213162
ISBN-13	978-1-4742-1316-5 / 9781474213165
Zustand	Neuware