Theatres of War: Contemporary Perspectives

Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, 2021

The apocalyptic event, in order to be properly apocalyptic, must in its destructive moment clarify and illuminate the true nature of what has been brought to an end.

This full-length study investigates a range of formal strategies deployed by theatre-makers in Britain in response to the new wars of the global age. By almost general consensus, the final years of the 20th century mark a watershed between ‘old’ and ‘new’ wars, that is to say between traditional, Clausewitzean patterns of conflict and the hybrid forms of belligerence that have come to characterize the new world order. Establishing a connection between modes of warfare and modes of representation, this study tries to assess the impact of this full-fledged paradigm shift on contemporary dramaturgy. While mainly focusing on work produced around or after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, a time when the inadequacy of traditional strategic and cultural models became all too palpable, it also examines plays that have prefigured these developments by providing aesthetic answers to dilemmas of representation that were only just beginning to come into focus. In many respects, the sense of urgency with which the British stage has committed to the task of providing new interpretive tools for understanding this changed landscape has acted as a powerful motor for formal innovation. Faced with the challenge of registering the novelty and the complexity of the current model of warfare, dramatists and theatre-makers have directed their inquisitive gaze inwards as well as outwards, reflecting critically and creatively on the limits and the possibilities of the medium they work with and in this way contributing to its continued cultural and political relevance.

Journal of Contemporary Drama in English, 2018

In her compelling study, Lara Stevens combines two key strands of discussion in contemporary drama which have received increasing attention in theatre criticism lately: the question of how theatre and performance engage with and protest against the 'War on Terror' on the one hand and the relevance of Brechtian epic theatre for twenty-first-century political theatre on the other. Interested in particular in "how contemporary anti-war plays work to influence spectator responses to the violence of war after the terrorist attacks of 9/11" (1) and with a considerable personal investment in the topic, aiming "to understand how deeply I [as a Western subject from an allied nation] was implicated in these conflicts" (1), Stevens examines the role of theatre as a locus of resistance where alternative spaces and perspectives can be created "outside the normative and highly controlled frames of the mainstream media" (2). Integral to the book's investigations and to its understanding of political theatre is Bertolt Brecht, whose model of epic theatre is fruitfully brought into dialogue with the political and philosophical conditions of a post-Marxist, globalised and postmodern world in order to shed light on theas Stevens convincingly arguessignificant value of Brecht's ideas for the contemporary stage.

Oxford, United Kingdom, 2010

This essay considers the theatrical representation of the individual and war in a time of disintegrating national states. Springing from the discussion about ‘new wars’ in the age of globalisation, it is demonstrated how these ‘new wars’ also generate new plays about war, illustrated by Caryl Churchill's "Far Away" (2000) and Zinnie Harris's "Midwinter" (2004). Examining the possible connections between socio-political research and the artistic representation of war on stage, the essay demonstrates a shift in the traditional antagonisms between dramatic personae, as the new war plays show their protagonists in confrontation with an unlisted character: the war machine.

Performance Paradigm, 2015

The resurgence of documentary theatre in the UK in the new millennium has often been attributed to a desire for authenticity, facts, and truthful accounts in the ‘war on terror’ era. At a time when politicians (mis)led the UK into war in Iraq, based on false claims about weapons of mass destruction that could be launched within forty-five minutes, theatre rediscovered its capacity for responding promptly to current events in a fact-based manner. The thorough research process and arrangement of materials in dramatic forms that seem to re-present their original sources authentically was seen as an appropriate response to a ‘perceived democratic deficit in the wider political culture’ (Megson 2005: 370). A cursory overview of the shows staged in London in 2014, among which were Alecky Blythe’s Little Revolution at the Almeida Theatre, Tess Berry-Hart’s Sochi 2014 at the Hope Theatre, and Lloyd Newson/DV8’s John at the National Theatre, suggests that the form retains its appeal, despite the growing number of critiques of verbatim theatre’s truth claim (see especially Bottoms 2006). What these and most other verbatim productions have in common is that they rely on interviews with real people involved in recent events, whether the 2011 riots in London or the LGBT rights struggles surrounding the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. In most cases, actors stand in for those people whose lived experiences are the subject of the plays. In this article, I ask what happens when those real people take to the stage themselves. While seeming to exceed verbatim theatre’s promise of authenticity by confronting audiences with the individuals involved in the real-life story, this approach comes with its own set of concerns about the exposure of non-professional performers to the audience’s scrutiny. This is especially so when the performers in question are ill or disabled. In Bravo 22 Company’s production of Owen Sheers’ The Two Worlds of Charlie F. (2012), the real bodies of psychologically and physically wounded service personnel irrupt into the theatrical frame of an otherwise fictionalised play about their front-line experiences and return to British society. Hans-Thies Lehmann discusses the ‘irruption of the real’ in the context of postdramatic theatre, which ‘is the first to turn the level of the real explicitly into a “co-player”’ (2006: 100).

Staging 21st Century Tragedies. Theatre, Politics, and Global Crisis, 2022

Introduction to the International Edited Collection Staging 21st Century Tragedies Theatre Politics and Global Crisis. The book, edited by Avra Sidiropoulou, features academic essays by Yana Meerzon, Carol Martin,Tadashi Uchino, Frank Raddatz, Freddy Decreus, Taiwo Afolabi, Stephen Ogheneruro Okpadah and Ogah Mark Onwe, Ana Fernandez-Caparrós, Aldo Milohnic, Silvia Bigliazzi, Constantina Ziropoulou, Ana Contreras and Avra Sidiropoulou, as well as artists’ contributions by Karen Malpede, Daniel Wetzel, Peter Campbell, Hanane Hajj Ali, Anestis Azas, Lupe Gehrenbeck, Su Xiaogang, Miguel Rojo and Javier Hernando (Los Barbaros). The collection examines ways in which the global tragedies of our century are being negotiated in current theatre practice. In exploring the tragic in the fields of history and theory of theatre, the book approaches crisis through an understanding of the existential and political aspect of the tragic condition. Using an interdisciplinary perspective, it showcases theatre texts and productions that enter the public sphere, manifesting notably participatory, immersive, and documentary modes of expression to form a theatre of modern tragedy. The coexistence of scholarly essays with manifesto-like provocations, interviews, original plays, and diaries by theatre artists provides a rich and multifocal lens that allows readers to approach twenty-first-century theatre through historical and critical study, text and performance analysis, and creative processes. Of special value is the global scope of the collection, embracing forms of crisis theatre in many geographically diverse regions of both the East and the West.

Theatre for peacebuilding is increasingly gaining scholarly and practitioner interest as an approach for peacebuilding. Often found within critical and developing agendas in peace and conflict studies, it is seen to offer a possible platform to creatively engage with conflict narratives and emotional cultures of conflict. The range of theatre forms used for peacebuilding that encompass professional and participatory theatre aimed at personal healing, relationship building, dialogue, peace education, coexistence, and resistance illustrate the versatility of theatre as an approach. Prevailing peacebuilding can benefit from the broader repertoires of communication, representation, and participation offered within the theatre space. The entry provides a discussion of theatre forms used for peacebuilding and the contributions theatre can offer to peacebuilding. In conclusion, it identifies areas for further research.

2011

The focus of this dissertation is the theatrical representation of both the individual and war in a time of disintegrating national states and the dramatisation of destruction versus survival as the driving forces on stage. In a study on the future of empire it has been observed that instead of progressing into a peaceful future, the 21 century has slipped back in time into the nightmare of perpetual and indeterminate state of warfare: ceasing to be the exceptional state, war has become 'the primary organising principle of society', thus echoing Giorgio Agamben's declaration that the state of exception has become the status quo. Seminal studies on contemporary warfare and society such as Mary Kaldor's New & Old Wars (2005) and Ulrich Beck's World at Risk (2008 [2007]) trace how the face of war has changed over the past fifteen years. The dramatic texts examined in this thesis reach from plays depicting inner-state conflict, civil war and the politics of fear, for...

2013

La presente tesi verte sul ruolo del teatro sociale come strumento di mediazione e trasformazione dei conflitti nei contesti di post-guerra. A tal fine il primo passo (Capitolo 1) è stato costruire un quadro interpretativo interdisciplinare, con cui analizzare le caratteristiche ricorrenti e le differenze nelle esperienze già esistenti in questo ambito, e da cui poter trarre indicazioni circa il disegno progettuale. Per il raggiungimento di questi obiettivi, sono stati esaminati criticamente i lavori sul campo e le osservazioni teoriche di Hannah Reich, Guglielmo Schininà e John Paul Lederach, unitamente alle teorie di Johan Galtung e Pat Patfoort. Il secondo passo (Capitolo 2) è stato individuare alcuni casi di studio che consentissero di validare il modello interpretativo elaborato. Ho dunque innanzitutto censito le esperienze già realizzate recentemente o in corso d’opera, per poi applicare ad esse dei criteri di selezione desunti dall’analisi teorica, specie dal lavoro di Hannah...

JADT: Journal of American Drama and Theatre 20.2 (Spring 2008): 65-86., 2008

potential supporters were more numerous in urban areas, it would be logical to shape the archive in a way that would appeal to these outside reviewers. It is possible, then, that t h s organization may not be any indication as to what was actually valued by Flanagan and the FTP; instead, it may conform to the expectations (real or imagned) of these outsiders, which brings questions of the nature of the archives themselves to the forefront of this investigation.