Metatheatrical Dramaturgies of Violence: Staging the Role of Theatre

This book explores contemporary plays that examine theatre's response to violence, exposing its implication in structures of violence and illustrating how it can effectively resist violence through reconfiguring representation. Case studies include Jackie Sibblies Drury's We Are Proud to Present and Fairview, Ella Hickson's The Writer and Tim Crouch's The Author, providing practice-based perspectives on the question of whether theatre is capable of accounting for and expressing the complexities of structural and interpersonal violence.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 226 pages
Publication date: 10 November 2022
Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland AG

This book explores a selection of contemporary plays that delve into the representation of theatre itself on stage. Through a series of case studies, the book examines how theatre responds to the demands of violence, exposes its implication in structures of violence, including racism and gender-based violence, and illustrates how it can effectively resist violence through reconfiguring representation. The plays examined include Jackie Sibblies Drury's We Are Proud to Present and Fairview, Ella Hickson's The Writer and Tim Crouch's The Author. These case studies offer diverse practice-based perspectives on the question of whether theatre is capable of accounting for and expressing the complexities of structural and interpersonal violence as both lived in the body and borne out in society. The book will appeal to scholars and artists working in the areas of violence, theatre and ethics, witnessing, memory and trauma, spectatorship and contemporary dramaturgy, as well as to those interested in the doubts and dreams we have about the role of theatre in the twenty-first century.

Weight: 323g
Dimension: 210 x 148 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9783030851040
Edition number: 1st ed. 2021