Theatre in Times of Crisis

20 Scenes for the Stage in Troubled Times

Edward Bond, Mojisola Adebayo, Sudha Bhuchar, Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, Zoe Cooper, Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, Tim Crouch, Inua Ellams, James Graham, Tanika Gupta, Hannah Khalil, Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, Alistair McDowall, Vinay Patel, Lucy Prebble, Philip Ridley, Christopher Shinn, Simon Stephens, Chris Thorp, Dom O'Hanlon, Dom O'Hanlon

• Verlag: Methuen Drama
• Jahr: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781350188822
• Auflage: 1
• Thema: Letteratura
• Thema: Teatro

Theatre has a complex history of responding to crises, long before they happen. Through stage plays, contemporary challenges can be presented, explored and even foreshadowed in ways that help audiences understand the world around them. Since the theatre of the Greeks, audiences have turned to live theatre in order to find answers in uncertain political, social and economic times, and through this unique collection questions about This anthology brings together a collection of 20 scenes from 20 playwrights that each respond to the world in crisis. Twenty of the world's most prolific playwrights were asked to select one scene from across their published work that speaks to the current world situation in 2020. As COVID-19 continues to challenge every aspect of global life, contemporary theatre has long predicted a world on the edge. Through these 20 scenes from plays spanning from 1980 to 2020, we see how theatre and art has the capacity to respond, comment on and grapple with global challenges that in turn speak to the current time in which we are living. Each scene, chosen by the writer, is prefaced by an interview in which they discuss their process, their reason for selection and how their work reflects both the past and the present. From the political plays of Lucy Prebble and James Graham to the polemics of Philip Ridley and Tim Crouch. From bold works by Inua Ellams, Morgan Lloyd Malcom and Tanika Gupta to the social relevance of Hannah Khalil, Zoe Cooper and Simon Stephens this anthology looks at theatre in the present and asks the question: "how can theatre respond to a world in crisis?" The collection is prefaced by an introduction from Edward Bond, one of contemporary theatre's most prolific dramatists.

The Interrogation of Sandra Bland

Mojisola Adebayo

Mojisola Adebayo is a playwright, performer, director, producer, workshop facilitator and lecturer. She has a BA in Drama and Theatre Arts, an MA in Physical Theatre and her PhD is entitled Afriquia Theatre: Creating Black Queer Ubuntu Through Performance (Goldsmiths, Royal Holloway and Queen Mary, University of London). Mojisola trained extensively with Augusto Boal and is an international specialist in Theatre of the Oppressed, often working in locations of crisis and conflict. She has worked in theatre, radio and television, on four continents, over the past twenty-five years, performing in over fifty productions, writing, devising and directing over thirty plays, and leading countless workshops, from Antarctica to Zimbabwe. Her own authored plays include Moj of the Antarctic: An African Odyssey (Lyric Hammersmith and Ovalhouse, London), Muhammad Ali and Me (Ovalhouse, Albany Theatre, London and UK touring), 48 Minutes for Palestine (Ashtar Theatre and international touring), Desert Boy (Albany Theatre, London and UK touring), The Listeners (Pegasus Theatre, Oxford), I Stand Corrected (Artscape, Ovalhouse, London and international touring) and The Interrogation of Sandra Bland (Bush Theatre, London). Her publications include Mojisola Adebayo: Plays One (Oberon Books), 48 Minutes for Palestine in Theatre in Pieces (Methuen Drama), The Interrogation of Sandra Bland in Black Lives, Black Words (Oberon Books) and The Theatre for Development Handbook (Pan, co-written with John Martin and Manisha Mehta) as well as academic chapters published by Methuen Drama, Palgrave Macmillan and various journals. Mojisola Adebayo is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature; an Associate Artist with Pan Arts, Building the Anti-Racist Classroom Collective and Black Lives, Black Words; an Honorary Fellow of Rose Bruford College, a Visiting Lecturer at Goldsmiths and a Lecturer at Queen Mary, University of London. She has recently been awarded a Fellowship at Potsdam University (Germany). Wind/Rush Generations and her new play STARS both open in 2021. Mojisola is currently writing Family Tree, commissioned by Matthew Xia of Actors Touring Company and Young Vic. See www.mojisolaadebayo.co.uk for more.

What does the word ‘crisis’ mean to you in a theatrical sense?

My teacher and mentor Augusto Boal often referred to the kind of crisis that we explore in Theatre of the Oppressed. Augusto referred to it as ‘Chinese crisis’, inspired by the Mandarin symbols for crisis which are both danger and opportunity. Augusto didn’t speak Mandarin and neither do I but the point has always stayed with me: that in a Forum Theatre play in particular, we see our protagonist reach a point where there is both great danger and great opportunity for something to change, personally and politically.

How do you feel theatre has the ability to represent/respond to global crises?

Theatre for me is the art of human relationships in space – in the now, it is the art of being human on planet earth – together, it is the art of dialogue in the sense of working things out with one another (with or without words), it is the art of ubuntu – to quote the Southern African philosophy of humanity, empathy, understanding and compassion which broadly means, I am me through you and you are you through me or to quote Muhammad Ali: ‘Me, We’. So because of all that theatre is at its core, I feel it is the most necessary art form for understanding, questioning and coming up with solutions for problems that human beings have created on this planet.

Why did you pick this specific scene? What is this scene doing at this point of the play?

When you kindly asked me to share a scene of crisis, I thought immediately of The Interrogation of Sandra Bland. It is both a scene and a play that represents a black woman at a point of intense crisis, of danger and opportunity (to refer to Boal and the Mandarin symbols for crisis mentioned above). The danger is that Sandra Bland will die a brutal death in a police cell. The opportunity is that she will win her battle with an unjust police officer. The police officer, Encinia, is also in great danger of a kind; he is in danger of betraying his own humanity and hers, in danger of being the worst of whiteness and he has an opportunity to be his best self and to undo his racism and sexism. In turn, as performers and participants in the drama, we are all forced to consider our position in relation to Sandra Bland, how far we are victims and survivors of the danger of racism, and what power and privilege we can assert, in this great opportunity at this time in history to end discrimination. As a black woman, I know I could have been in Sandra Bland’s shoes, in Sandra Bland’s car. For a white person reading or participating in the play (even silently listening) they are also forced to consider their position in all this, how whiteness implicates them in this drama. The play demands that whatever the colour of your skin, you ask yourself, could I have been Sandra Bland, and if yes, how will I fight on and also protect myself and heal from racism, and if I could not have been Sandra Bland, then what am I going to do to betray the racism and sexism that leads to the conclusion of the scene? How will I be, to quote Noel Ignatiev and John Garvey, a ‘race traitor’; i.e. what will I do to dismantl...