At the Sharp End: Uncovering the Work of Five Leading Dramatists
At the Sharp End: Uncovering the Work of Five Leading Dramatists

Author: Peter Billingham

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2007-11-05

Total Pages: 285

ISBN-13: 140814770X

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What value does theatre have in Britain at the beginning of the twenty-first century? How has theatre responded to the challenge of remaining relevant in the media-saturated world of today? These are the questions that underpin this stimulating study of some of the leading dramatists of contemporary British theatre. At the Sharp End sets the scene examining how the forces that created a revolution in theatre fifty years ago have been replaced by a new wave of political and social issues. It goes on to explore the ways in which five key writers have sought to reflect and wrestle with the changing character of modern Britain. The work of David Edgar, David Greig, Mark Ravenhill, Tanika Gupta and Tim Etchells' company Forced Entertainment is considered, with recent plays examined in detail, an interview with each writer; and suggestions of other writers and plays for reading and comparison. At the Sharp End provides the perfect companion for anyone wanting to understand the changing face of contemporary drama and the writers whose work is making an impact on our stages today.

Modern British Playwriting: 2000-2009
Modern British Playwriting: 2000-2009

Author: Dan Rebellato

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2013-12-16

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 1408129582

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Essential for students of theatre studies, Methuen Drama's Decades of Modern British Playwriting series provides a comprehensive survey and study of the theatre produced in each decade from the 1950s to 2009 in six volumes. Each volume features a critical analysis and reevaluation of the work of four/five key playwrights from that decade authored by a team of experts, together with an extensive commentary on the period . Edited by Dan Rebellato, Modern British Playwriting: 2000-2009 provides an authoritative and stimulating reassessment of the theatre of the decade, together with a detailed study of the work of David Greig (Nadine Holdsworth), Simon Stephens (Jacqueline Bolton), Tim Crouch (Dan Rebellato), Roy Williams (Michael Pearce) and Debbie Tucker Green (Lynette Goddard). The volume sets the context by providing a chronological survey of the decade, one marked by the War on Terror, the excesses of economic globalization and the digital revolution. In surveying the theatrical activity and climate, Andrew Haydon explores the response to the political events, the rise of verbatim theatre, the increasing experimentation and the effect of both the Boyden Report and changes in the Arts Council's priorities. Five scholars provide detailed examinations of the playwrights' work during the decade, combining an analysis of their plays with a study of other material such as early play drafts and the critical receptions of the time. Interviews with each playwright further illuminate this stimulating final volume in the Decades of Modern British Playwriting series.

The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary British Playwrights
The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary British Playwrights

Author: Aleks Sierz

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2011-10-17

Total Pages: 545

ISBN-13: 1408123347

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The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary British Playwrights is an authoritative guide to the work of twenty-five playwrights who have risen to prominence since the 1980s. Written by an international team of scholars, it will be invaluable to anyone interested in, studying or teaching contemporary drama. Among the many playwrights whose work is examined are Sarah Daniels, Terry Johnson, Martin Crimp, Sarah Kane, Anthony Neilson, Mark Ravenhill, Simon Stephens, Debbie Tucker Green, Tanika Gupta and Richard Bean. Each essay features: A biographical sketch and introduction to the playwright A discussion of their most important plays An analysis of their stylistic and thematic traits, the critical reception and their place in the discourses of British theatre A bibliography of texts and critical material

Twenty-First Century Drama
Twenty-First Century Drama

Author: Siân Adiseshiah

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-06-17

Total Pages: 349

ISBN-13: 1137484039

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Within this landmark collection, original voices from the field of drama provide rich analysis of a selection of the most exciting and remarkable plays and productions of the twenty-first century. But what makes the drama of the new millenium so distinctive? Which events, themes, shifts, and paradigms are marking its stages? Kaleidoscopic in scope, Twenty-First Century Drama: What Happens Now creates a broad, rigorously critical framework for approaching the drama of this period, including its forms, playwrights, companies, institutions, collaborative projects, and directors. The collection has a deliberately British bent, examining established playwrights – such as Churchill, Brenton, and Hare – alongside a new generation of writers – including Stephens, Prebble, Kirkwood, Bartlett, and Kelly. Simultaneously international in scope, it engages with significant new work from the US, Japan, India, Australia, and the Netherlands, to reflect a twenty-first century context that is fundamentally globalized. The volume’s central themes – the financial crisis, austerity, climate change, new forms of human being, migration, class, race and gender, cultural politics and issues of nationhood – are mediated through fresh, cutting-edge perspectives.

The Changing Language of Modern English Drama 1945–2005
The Changing Language of Modern English Drama 1945–2005

Author: K. Dorney

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2009-09-29

Total Pages: 261

ISBN-13: 0230245218

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An account of language and drama between 1945 and 2005, synthesizing linguistic and dramatic knowledge in order to illuminate the ways in which anxieties and attitudes toward language manifest themselves in discourses on and around English theatre of the time, and how these anxieties and attitudes reflect back through the theatre of this period.

The Argumentative Theatre of Joe Penhall
The Argumentative Theatre of Joe Penhall

Author: William C. Boles

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2014-01-10

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 0786485515

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Of the many dynamic, young playwrights to be associated with the "In-Yer-Face" burst of creative talent on the British stage in the mid-1990s, Joe Penhall has challenged Britain's status quo the most. Penhall believes his plays should constantly provoke and enrage not only the institutions he targets, but also his audience. This critical book discusses the argumentative nature of Penhall's plays, while also placing them within the context of contemporary British society and the modern dramatic tradition. His eight plays are discussed in detail, and particular attention is paid to male identity, the nature of grief, the variety of females, domestic drama, and the role of autobiography in his work.

Modern British Playwriting: The 1990s
Modern British Playwriting: The 1990s

Author: Aleks Sierz

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2014-03-20

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 1408129280

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British theatre of the 1990s witnessed an explosion of new talent and presented a new sensibility that sent shockwaves through audiences and critics. What produced this change, the context from which the work emerged, the main playwrights and plays, and the influence they had on later work are freshly evaluated in this important new study in Methuen Drama's Decades of Modern British Playwriting series. The 1990s volume provides a detailed study by four scholars of the work of four of the major playwrights who emerged and had a significant impact on British theatre: Sarah Kane (by Catherine Rees), Anthony Neilson (Patricia Reid), Mark Ravenhill (Graham Saunders) and Philip Ridley (Aleks Sierz). Essential for students of Theatre Studies, the series of six decadal volumes provides a critical survey and study of the theatre produced from the 1950s to 2009. Each volume features a critical analysis of the work of four key playwrights besides other theatre work, together with an extensive commentary on the period. Readers will understand the works in their contexts and be presented with fresh research material and a reassessment from the perspective of the twenty-first century. This is an authoritative and stimulating reassessment of British playwriting in the 1990s.

Stephen Poliakoff on Stage and Screen
Stephen Poliakoff on Stage and Screen

Author: Robin Nelson

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2014-03-10

Total Pages: 271

ISBN-13: 1408131099

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Over four decades, Stephen Poliakoff has proved himself to be a distinctive dramatist in the mediums of theatre, film and television. Moving from playwright to television and film director, he has been hailed as 'TV's foremost writer' (Independent) and as 'one of our most poetic and best TV dramatists' (Daily Telegraph). In the USA, his TV 'films' have received industry acclaim, The Lost Prince winning three Emmy Awards and Gideon's Daughter two Golden Globes. This book is the first to offer a comprehensive overview of Poliakoff's work for stage and screen and a framework for its critical evaluation. It will prove invaluable to students of theatre, film, and television studies. Robin Nelson locates Poliakoff's distinctive vision and fierce independence as a writer and director in both personal and public histories and against industry contexts. He charts Poliakoff's 'meteoric rise' as a playwright, and his 'second starburst' in television drama since Shooting the Past (1999) which re-affirmed his reputation as a dramatist of distinction. While the chronology of Poliakoff's impressive output is clearly laid out, works are discussed in thematic clusters ranging across mediums to afford a fresh perspective. The book covers 'issue dramas', 'quirky strong women' and 'histories/memories' as well as Poliakoff's early developing dramaturgy, and it examines in detail the later feature films and television dramas which have secured his reputation as our most distinctive television dramatist.

Performing Immanence
Performing Immanence

Author: Jan Suk

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2021-01-18

Total Pages: 206

ISBN-13: 3110710994

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Performing Immanence: Forced Entertainment is a unique probe into the multi-faceted nature of the works of the British experimental theatre Forced Entertainment via the thought of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. Jan Suk explores the transformation-potentiality of the territory between the actors and the spectators, namely via Forced Entertainment’s structural patterns, sympathy provoking aesthetics, audience integration and accentuated emphasis of the now. Besides writings of Tim Etchells, the company’s director, the foci of the analyses are devised as well as durational projects of Forced Entertainment. The examination includes a wider spectrum of state-of the-art live artists, e.g. Tehching Hsieh, Franko B or Goat Island, discussed within the contemporary performance discourse. Performing Immanence: Forced Entertainment investigates how the immanent reading of Forced Entertainment’s performances brings the potentiality of creative transformative experience via the thought of Gilles Deleuze. The interconnections of Deleuze’s thought and the contemporary devised performance theatre results in the symbiotic relationship that proves that such readings are not mere academic exercises, but truly life-illuminating realizations.

David Greig’s Holed Theatre
David Greig’s Holed Theatre

Author: Verónica Rodríguez

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2019-02-09

Total Pages: 293

ISBN-13: 3030061825

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With a Foreword by Dan Rebellato, this book offers up a detailed exploration of Scottish playwright David Greig’s work with particular attention to globalization, ethics, and the spectator. It makes the argument that Greig’s theatre works by undoing, cracking, or breaking apart myriad elements to reveal the holed, porous nature of all things. Starting with a discussion of Greig’s engagement with shamanism and arguing for holed theatre as a response to globalization, for Greig’s works’ politics of aesthethics, and for the holed spectator as part of an affective ecology of transfers, this book discusses some of Greig’s most representative political theatre from Europe (1994) to The Events (2013), concluding with an exploration of Greig’s theatre’s world-forming quality.