Science Fiction and Contemporary British Theatre

Inbunden, Engelska, 2025

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Analysing an expanding body of theatre and performance works, Science Fiction and Contemporary British Theatre examines how the themes and images of science fiction are enabling practitioners to intervene on the most urgent social and political issues of the present moment.By exploring the genre’s impact on the live theatrical event, the book presents an original and topical interrogation of issues that remain at the heart of the national and global political agenda, including military conflict, social injustice, economic inequality, migration, nationhood, anti-democratic populism, and climate collapse.The author draws upon a wide range of dramatic forms, from critically acclaimed plays by writers such as Alistair McDowall, Caryl Churchill, Dawn King, Anne Washburn and Ella Road, to devised work, site-specific performance, Shakespearean drama and physical theatre. The book's chapters are based on some of the genre’s most resonant images, including post-apocalyptic wildernesses, dystopian regimes and artificial lifeforms. Furthermore, by placing examples in dialogue with a range of theories and scholars, this book constructs an innovative interdisciplinary framework comprised of theatre studies, sociology, philosophy, economic and political science.Providing an engagingly written, intellectually rich and uniquely compelling analysis, Science Fiction and Contemporary British Theatre charts a new and growing landscape of scholarly research, and establishes science fiction as an exciting, expanding and urgent dramatic and political practice.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2025-08-21
Mått138 x 218 x 18 mm
Vikt399 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
SerieMethuen Drama Engage
Antal sidor216
FörlagBloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN9781350394339

Tillhör följande kategorier

Teater inom Kultur
Dramatik inom Skönlitteratur

IntroductionScience fiction in contemporary cultureTheatre and science fiction in scholarshipChapter one – Theatre and science fiction: staging realismIntroductionRealism in science fictionRealism in culture and theatre Playing with realism: Caryl ChurchillExploding realism: Alistair McDowallChapter two – Theatre and post-apocalypse: staging ruinsIntroductionThe modern ruin in society, theory and cultureMemory in ruins: Anne Washburn’s Mr BurnsLanguage in ruins: Ed Thomas’s On Bear RidgeThe ruins of capitalism: Stan’s Cafe’s Home of the WrigglerThe nation in ruins: Tajinder Singh Hayer’s North CountryConclusion: beyond ruinationChapter three – Theatre and technology: staging the posthumanIntroductionPosthumanism in society, theory and cultureAndroid camp: Thomas Eccleshare’s Instructions for Correct Assembly and Tim Foley’s Electric RosaryAutomating Consent: Philip Ayckbourn’s Loving Androids and Nessah Muthy’s Sex with Robots & Other DevicesFrom posthumanism to transhumanismStaging virtual reality: Jennifer Haley’s The NetherPost-bodied, post-humanity: RashDash and Unlimited’s Future BodiesChapter four – Theatre and dystopia: staging precarityIntroductionDefining dystopiaContemporary theatre: from crisis to dystopiaDefining precarityMark Ravenhill’s The Cut, Fraser Grace’s Lifesavers and Penelope Skinner’s Meek: precarities of violenceClimate precarity: Caryl Churchill’s Far Away, Dawn King’s Foxfinder and Knaive’s War with the Newts: climate precarityNeoliberal precarity: Ella Road’s The PhlebotomistConclusion: towards a utopian futureConclusionBibliographyIndex