The Aesthetic Characteristics of In-Yer-Face Theatre

Abstract

In the late 20th Century filled with fin-de-siecle mood, the new theatre centered around the UK has emerged. It was coined In-Yer-Face Theatre which breaks with conventional theatrical codes to confront the vulgar and the shocking. Up to the present, researches on art have generally been carried out through sociology, psychology and the history of art. Especially, the research on the social and cultural relations between the artists and their art works and the interrelation between the art works and other systems focuses on sociological approach. Therefore, the results are concentrated on the social meaning and significance of the new art form. However, it is a different matter that a work has the social and political implication and has the artistic value. Thus, this research will examine the characteristics of In-Yer-Face Theatre through the aesthetic categories. In-Yer-Face Theatre is in accord with as a main aesthetic subject. As the properties of ugliness, unsuitability, imperfection, and flaw are revealed through characters dialogues and behaviors on stage. In addition, unpleasure, another characteristic of ugliness, appears in the reaction of the audience to real violences and sexual behaviors during the performance. Furthermore, disorder which is the most important attribution of ugliness is related to the formal characteristic of in-yer-face theatre: its dramaturgy which rejects the well-made-play. As a result, the playwrights of in-yer-face theatre use intentionally ugliness as a new tool in order to reveal and criticize the ugliness in real world. They insult the reality which dehumanizes people, human beings which have not changed in the situation, and such circumstances by using unmentionable and frank expressions. That is, in-yer-face theatre is the product of strong consciousness leading to a change.