Strategies of Political Theatre

Post-War British Playwrights
Erscheinungsjahr 2007
ISBN: 978-0-521-25855-5
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 256 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 565 g

Reihe: Cambridge Studies in Modern Theatre

This volume provides a theoretical framework for some of the most important play-writing in Britain in the second half of the twentieth century. Examining representative plays by Arnold Wesker, John Arden, Trevor Griffith, Howard Barker, Howard Brenton, Edward Bond, David Hare, John McGrath and Caryl Churchill, the author analyses their respective strategies for persuading audiences of the need for a radical restructuring of society. The book begins with a discussion of the way that theatre has been used to convey a political message. Each chapter is then devoted to an exploration of the engagement of individual playwrights with left-wing political theatre, including a detailed analysis of one of their major plays. Despite political change since the 1980s, political play-writing continues to be a significant element in contemporary play-writing, but in a very changed form.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Patterson, Michael

Bradby, David

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Theaterwissenschaft Theatertheorie, Ästhetik des Theaters, Theaterkritik
• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Theaterwissenschaft Theatergeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Theaterwissenschaft Theatersoziologie, Theaterpsychologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements; Brief chronology, 1953–1989; Introduction; Part I. Theory: 1. Strategies of political theatre: a theoretical overview; Part II. Two Model Strategies: 2. The 'reflectionist' strategy: 'kitchen sink' realism in Arnold Wesker's Roots (1959); 3. The 'interventionist' strategy: poetic politics in John Arden's Serjeant Musgrave's Dance (1959); Part III. The Reflectionist Strain: 4. The dialectics of comedy: Trevor Griffiths's Comedians (1975); 5. Appropriating middle-class comedy: Howard Barker's Stripwell (1975); 6. Staging the future: Howard Brenton's The Churchill Play (1974); Part IV. The Interventionist Strain: 7. Agit-prop revisited: John McGrath's The Cheviot, the Stag, and the Black, Black Oil (1973); 8. Brecht revisited: David Hare's Fanshen (1975); 9. Rewriting Shakespeare: Edward Bond's Lear (1971); 10. The strategy of play: Caryl Churchill's Cloud Nine (1979); Conclusion; Notes; Select bibliography; Index.

Über Autor(innen)

Patterson, Michael
Michael Patterson is Professor of Theatre at De Montfort University, Leicester. He is a major British authority on German Theatre, especially twentieth-century political theatre in Germany. He is author of German Theatre Today; The Revolution in German Theatre 1900–1933; Peter Stein; The First German Theatre; German Theatre: A Bibliography and is editor of Georg Büchner: Collected Plays. He has published numerous articles on German Naturalist theatre, Reinhardt, Pirandello, Brecht, concentration camp theatre, Kroetz and East German theatre.