Ecologies of Precarity in Twenty-First Century Theatre

Politics, Affect, Responsibility

Marissia Fragkou, Enoch Brater, Mark Taylor-Batty

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9781350154858
• eBook ISBN:
  9781474267151
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Theatre Direction & Production

Presenting a rigorous critical investigation of the reinvigoration of the political in contemporary British theatre, Ecologies of Precarity in Twenty-First Century Theatre provides a fresh understanding of how theatre has engaged with precarity, affect, risk, intimacy, care and relationality in recent times. The study makes a compelling case for reading precarity as a 'sticky' theatrical trope which carries the potential to re-animate our understanding of identity politics and responsibility for the lives of Others in an age of uncertainty.

Approaching precarity as an ecology cutting across various practices, themes and aesthetics, the book features a comprehensive selection of theatre examples staged in the UK since the 1990s. Works by debbie tucker green, Alistair McDowall, Complicite, Simon Stephens, Stan's Cafe, Mike Bartlett, Caryl Churchill, The Paper Birds, and Belarus Free Theatre are put in dialogue with interdisciplinary feminist vocabularies developed by Judith Butler, Sara Ahmed, Lauren Berlant and Isabell Lorey. In focusing on areas such as children and youth at risk, human rights, environmental ethics and the politics of debt, the study makes a vital contribution to the burgeoning field of politics and theatre in the 21st century.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1. Promises of Happiness and Cruel Optimisms: Theatre in the 1990s
• 2. Children and Young People at Risk
• 3. ‘A Glimpse into Some Other World’: Imagining Slow Violence in the Anthropocene
• 4. Framing Human Rights
• 5. (Dis)possession, Debt and Economies of Value
• Afterword: On Hoping
• Notes
• References
• Index