Social and Political Theatre in 21st-Century Britain: Staging Crisis

Book Description

Social and Political Theatre in 21st-Century Britain examines contemporary experimental plays by British authors that confront such issues as the environment and the recession to mental health and interpersonal relationships, and which reflect our shared challenges and responsibilities as spectating communities.

Product Description

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.

Review

"Angelaki (Univ. of Reading, UK) contends in her epilogue that “playwrighting is not only alive as a genre of urgent socially and politically motivated theatre, but also in fighting form.” This is an apt summation of her book, which argues that “theatres of crisis” are alive and well in 21st-century Britain. In penetrating examinations of selected works of Caryl Churchill, Mike Bartlett, Dennis Kelly, Duncan Macmillan, Nick Payne, Martin Crimp, Simon Stephens, debbie tucker green, and Lucy Prebble, Angelaki builds a potent case for these playwrights' theatrically powerful response to matters of critical local and global concern, including the fallout from the politics of neoliberalism, community relations, ethics, environment, mass consumption, and healthcare. She believes their plays invite spectators to active engagement with crisis, and she structures her own argument to provoke a similar response, allowing readers to consider lengthy excerpts from the plays as well as a panoply of critical and scholarly responses and relevant texts from a range of disciplines. Angelaki also investigates how particular production choices enhance the political urgency of the plays, and she explores how unorthodox staging helps audiences shed passivity and become agents for change. Good bibliography and index. Summing Up: Recommended." - CHOICE

About the Author

Mark Taylor-Batty is Associate Professor of Theatre Studies and Deputy Head of School in the School of English at the University of Leeds, UK. His previous publications include The Theatre of Harold Pinter (Bloomsbury, 2014), About Pinter: The Playwright and the Work (Faber and Faber, 2005), Roger Blin: Collaborations and Methodologies (Peter Lang, 2007) and, he co-authored with his wife, Juliette Taylor-Batty, Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot (Continuum,