The Theatre of Anxiety

Border Crossings in 21st-Century British Theatre

Leila Michelle Vaziri

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2024
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9783111555218
• Subtopic: English Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

We are living in times when populism, war and climate change are all sources of anxiety caused by overlapping crises. Anxiety is a phenomenon that is not just reflected everywhere around us but is also increasingly manifesting itself in contemporary drama: particularly in the last five to ten years many new British dramas and theatre productions have given a stage to anxiety. Given this central role of anxiety, the aim of this study is to outline the interplay of theatre and anxiety on both a thematic and aesthetic level.

It argues that a strand of contemporary theatre that combines topics of social, ecological, technological and pandemic importance with investigations into the philosophical and aesthetic implications of anxiety has come to prominence in recent years: the theatre of anxiety. This is traced across exemplary readings of a number of contemporary British plays by playwrights such as Caryl Churchill, Zinnie Harris, Alistair McDowall and others. They show that contemporary drama and performance both aesthetically and thematically reflect and comment on global crises and catastrophes through the lens of anxiety as a feeling that 'colours' the perception of and reaction to these social and political conditions.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Endorsements
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction: Anxieties in the Twenty-First Century
• 2 The Phenomenology of Anxiety
• 3 The Aesthetics of the Theatre of Anxiety
• 4 Liquid Anxiety: Social Uncertainties and Isolation
• 5 Paralysing Anxiety: Overwhelming States of Ecological Crises
• 6 Controlling Anxiety: Between Security and Surveillance
• 7 Contagious Anxiety: Viruses, Plagues and Scapegoating
• 8 Conclusion: After Anxiety?
• Person Index