Science in contemporary British theatre: a conceptual approach

Abstract

Drawing on examples from the past twenty years of British theatre performance, a conceptual approach to the analysis of scientific ideas and discourse in dramatic and post-dramatic theatre is outlined. The focus is on plays and theatre pieces inspired by the ideas, the discourse and the images of science, thereby considering it above all as a form of knowledge and enquiry (leaving aside plays that focus on the characters of great scientists, or laboratory life). Examples are all drawn from the last twenty years of British theatre, and are mostly text-based drama and performance. Three levels of analysis are proposed: discursive questions, drawing on theories of metaphor and intertextuality to examine the effects of scientific discourse on stage and the poetic uses of epistemological terminology; the relation between the embodied nature of performance and the detachment of scientific theory, including phenomenological descriptions of theatrical embodiment; and the ways in which scientific images and shapes can inspire formal experimentation in the theatre.