British Theatre Research Articles

‘I knew her, Horatio’: Legacies of Shakespearean Performance in South Africa

ABSTRACT This article argues for the importance of recognizing the various histories reflected in performances of Shakespeare, and for the critical work this requires. South African productions have often illustrated the bedevilments of Shakespeare as a product within a neo-colonial cultural economy. However, despite the prominence of productions staged locally and abroad in collaboration with British theatre institutions, they should not be understood as representative. I suggest that a more expansive account of local productions is needed, using a virtual production of Hamlet (2021), adapted and directed by Neil Coppen and staged for the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (KKNK), as a starting point. Within a broader history of Shakespeare on post-apartheid stages, Hamlet (2021) is one of several local productions that have, formally and thematically, undermined the symbolic, spectacular and general in favour of the personal, ordinary and specific. To illustrate, I provide a list of productions staged between 1994 and 2021 along with analyses of productions of King Lear (2002) and Julius Caesar (1994, 2001–2002). My discussion demonstrates that the generative complexities of Hamlet are not new, but resonate with existing, overlooked legacies of local performance. To further develop the perspectives afforded by such legacies, I argue that scholarship must pursue more detailed theatre histories that engage with and expand existing archives.

Positioning and authority construction through translational intertextuality in La Place’s Théâtre Anglois (1745–1749)

ABSTRACT Early modern translations often constituted a way for their authors to actively position themselves in the literary field and to establish their authority. Translators sought to capitalise on their association with renowned agents in the field, especially those involved in the translation process and the author of the source text. In the case of the Théâtre Anglois (1745–1749), the first French anthology of English plays, which is largely devoted to Shakespeare, novice translator Pierre-Antoine de La Place could definitely expect mixed reactions to his association with Shakespeare, and therefore sought to establish relational authority with a model translator and a model translation. He claimed in his preface that he was encouraged to produce a translation of ‘the English theatre’ by the considerable success of Brumoy’s Théâtre des Grecs (1730). This explicit reference activates an intertextual connection between the two translation projects, which is further played out at the paratextual and textual levels. In this article, I propose to examine the strategies implemented by La Place to effect a legitimising association with the Théâtre des Grecs, which was acknowledged and strengthened by numerous critics to the extent that La Place himself came to be regarded as a model translator.

The Moorish Body in Resistance

Abstract The female Moor of Islamic Spain appeared frequently on the English stage in the seventh and eighteeth centuries; however, the discussion of her character, presence, portrayal and performance on stage has been widely missing in most critical studies on feminine orientalism. The image of Andalusian women in English theatre is very intriguing and worth dealing with since it offers a site where different dimensions combine, interact, intersect and even melt: orientalism, gender politics, theatrical topicality and the Andalus legacy. This article focuses mainly on Sophia Lee’s Almeyda; Queen of Granada (1796) as a female-authored play staging a Moorish heroine. It argues that the Moorish heroine offers a performing experience that goes beyond imperially-oriented drama and conventionally-played oriental roles. Combining notions of orientalism as western self-criticism with Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of the Romantic grotesque, I try to demonstrate that Almeyda’s body, while inscribed with authority, possesses carnavalesque-like qualities that negotiate gendered western power structures. In a deliberately-made manoeuvre, Almeyda resorts to artificial madness through which she and, by implication, Lee grapple with western patriarchy, promote feminine-oriented rule, transcend neo-classical constraints and undermine Enlightenment reason.

Swimming in the Deep Waters in Charlotte Jones’s Airswimming: Exploring Female Madness and Female Solidarity in a Psychiatric Hospital

Throughout the centuries, madness has been the historical label applied to female resistance, female power and female liberation. It has been imposed on society by patriarchy as a phenomenon or an illness peculiar only to women. Its ultimate aim is to subjugate women to the patriarchal world order. Women, challenging patriarchal ideology in the way of their sexual choices and their lifestyles, have been labelled as insane and confined to the psychiatric hospitals in order to be silenced. In this way, psychiatric hospitals have become spaces that institutionalize women with mental illness. Patriarchy has taken advantage of these institutions as a tool to discourage women from acting freely and achieving personal development. In the twentieth century, when feminist movement come to life, many feminist playwrights specially tend to investigate and write on both mental illness and psychiatric hospitals as a means of male oppression used against women. Their essential motivation is to question the social and historical dynamics behind the labelling of women as insane and imprisoning them to the psychiatric hospitals. Award-winning playwright Charlotte Jones (1968-), one of the towering names of contemporary British theatre, focussed on caged two women in a psychiatric hospital, named St. Dymphna’s Hospital, in her first play Airswimming (1997). She puts these women subjected to imprisonment as victims of patriarchal hegemony and their deplorable living conditions in psychiatric hospital in the center and argues the power of female solidarity against patriarchal persecution. This paper aims at exposing the systemized male oppression of women by psychiatric hospitals and the power of female solidarity against this oppression by focussing on the image of the ‘madwoman’ in Jones’s Airswimming.

Nailing the Spirit of Age: Serious Money as a Theatrical Response to the Cultural and Economic Policies of Thatcherism

Purpose: This study examines Serious Money by Caryl Churchill as a theatrical response to Thatcherism’s cultural and economic policies in 1980s Britain. It explores how the play critiques financial deregulation and the rise of aggressive capitalism under Margaret Thatcher. The analysis reflects broader social and cultural anxieties of the time. Research Methodology: The research uses textual analysis of the Methuen edition of Serious Money. It focuses on the play’s structure, language, and characters. Secondary literature on Thatcherism, neoliberalism, and British theatre is also considered. The study situates the play within the socio-economic context of the 1980s. Historical and political sources highlight the play’s response to key policies like the Big Bang of 1986. Results: The analysis shows Serious Money critiques Thatcher-era values. It uses satire and fragmented narratives to expose the moral bankruptcy of deregulated capitalism. The play’s inventive dramaturgy reflects the chaotic ethos of financial markets. It emerges as a key cultural artifact of the period. Limitations: The study is limited by its focus on textual analysis and does not include performance analysis, which could provide further insights into the play’s reception and impact. Additionally, it primarily examines the British context, leaving room for comparative studies of similar theatrical responses in other neoliberal economies. Contribution: This research contributes to the discourse on the interplay between theatre and politics, demonstrating how Churchill’s Serious Money serves as both a critique and a reflection of the Thatcher era’s socio-economic realities. It underscores the role of theatre as a medium for socio-political commentary and as a historical lens for understanding cultural transformations.

Death of a Salesman in Britain, 1949–1955

abstract This article traces the first productions of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman in England and Scotland, illustrating how Miller’s play quickly became important to contemporary British theater.

Good Nights Out: A History of Popular British Theatre since the Second World War. By Aleks Sierz. London: Bloomsbury, 2021. Pp. 228. £95 Hb; £22.99 Pb.

Good Nights Out: A History of Popular British Theatre since the Second World War. By Aleks Sierz. London: Bloomsbury, 2021. Pp. 228. £95 Hb; £22.99 Pb.

Charles Fleetwood, the 1744 Drury Lane Riots, and Pricing Practices in Eighteenth‐Century British Theatre

AbstractIn November 1744, a series of riots broke out at Drury Lane theatre, forcing its proprietor, Charles Fleetwood, to sell his majority share of the theatrical patent. Theatre scholarship has long held that the riots were caused by Fleetwood's attempt to raise admission prices for old pantomimes, yet also, somewhat contradictorily, has maintained that admission prices definitively increased at London's patent theatres in the period around 1740. This article shows both points to be mistaken: prices did not rise in the period, and Fleetwood was forced out due to a range of grievances that had developed over the preceding decade. By revealing how pricing practices, Fleetwood's tenure, and the riots developed, this article provides new insights on a crucial period in London's theatre history (the 1730s–40s) and on the wider social and economic dynamics of Georgian theatregoing.

British Theatre from Agitprop to ‘Primark Playwriting’

British Theatre from Agitprop to ‘Primark Playwriting’

POSTMODERN LAMPOON: METATHEATRICAL SATIRE ON NEOLIBERALISM IN TIMBERLAKE WERTENBAKER’S OUR COUNTRY’S GOOD

Metatheatre, which generally indicates a number of strategies revealing the fictionality of plays, has been prevalent throughout the history of theatre. The metatheatrical vehicles like the play-within-the-play have been sustainedly employed by playwrights in Ancient Greek theatre, Roman theatre and English theatre since the Renaissance up to day. In English theatre, a remarkable number of studies on this concept have focused on the Renaissance as it was popularised in this period. The studies on metatheatre have often described it as a technical novelty breaking the illusion created by traditional/realist plays. However, a careful analysis of its use in plays from varying periods and cultures show that metatheatre has also been employed as a tool of satirizing politics by the playwrights. In both the Renaissance and the eighteenth-century English drama, metatheatrical tools were used to satirize domestic politics and familiar politicians. However, with postmodernism, in the twentieth century, the context of satire changed since it was directed at universal problems, ideologies and accustomed ways of thinking rather than the contemporary problems of a certain country. In line with such a change, metatheatrical satires in the twentieth century aimed to target grand narratives produced by modernity. One such play is Our Country’s Good (1988) by Timberlake Wertenbaker where neoliberalism as a master narrative is satirized through the device of the rehearsal-within-the-play. Within this context, this study aims to explore Our Country’s Good as a postmodern satire in order to show that satire still has validity in the postmodern age, and draw attention to the symbiotic and persistent relation between satire and metatheatre.

Beckett’s Not I as a Dramatic Rendition of Kristeva’s Notion of the Semiotic Chora

Samuel Beckett as a dramatist is well-known with his contributions to the landscape of British theatre. His plays reverberate with voices of traumatized, marginalized and war-stricken characters, which function as an implicit criticism of the turbulent atmosphere of the 1900s. When Beckett addresses the problems of his time in a covert way, the playwright deconstructs conventional elements of drama by specifying no plot, no setting or no theme. This Beckettian style also becomes manifest in his use of language which is characterized by the presence of segmented structures, pauses, ellipses and even silence. Considering these tenets of Beckettian drama, the thematic concerns of his theatrical productions are assumed to primarily revolve around the issues of nihilism, language, and ontology. Therefore, Beckett’s plays are thought to be read through the lenses of distinguished theorists such as Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Jacques Lacan and Julia Kristeva. From among these theorists, the concepts of the semiotic, the symbolic and the semiotic chora of Julia Kristeva as a poststructuralist thinker provide a fertile ground for a theoretical reading of Beckett’s play Not I (1972). Relevantly, this paper principally examines the applicability of Kristeva’s “semiotic chora” into Beckett’s Not I in all aspects.

Irish rebellion in-yer-face or consigned to history: Seán O’Casey’s The Plough and the Stars in 2016

ABSTRACT This article considers two revisions of Seán O’Casey’s play The Plough and the Stars (1926) for the 2016 centenary commemoration of the 1916 Rising in Dublin: Sean Holmes’s robust new version staged at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin; and Howard Davies’s powerful yet sensitive production at the Lyttelton Theatre in London. These productions displayed contrasting directorial perspectives. Whilst Holmes emphasised serious social issues among those living below the poverty line in Dublin in the 2010s, Davies recreated the historical environment of 1916, reflecting the original context of O’Casey’s play from 1926. As this article argues, the two productions are not only important for their historic value but also because they reflect two major trends in contemporary British theatre: in-yer-face extravagance and historical documentarism. The article concludes by exploring the cultural and political significance of the expression ‘Waking the Nation’ (the title of the Abbey Theatre’s centenary programme, in which Holmes’s production appeared), and in particular its relation to these two revisions of The Plough and the Stars, a play originally written for the tenth anniversary of the Easter Rising that took place between 24th and 29 April 1916.

The Inoperative Community in Twenty-First-Century British Theatre

Abstract The literary genre of drama and its performative realisation in the theatre are based on dialogue and interaction. In this, drama and theatre have always had a close affinity to the structures of society in general and community in particular. I shall argue in the following that Inua Ellams’s Barber Shop Chronicles (2017), Travis Alabanza’s Sound of the Underground (2023), and Martin Crimp’s Not One of These People (2022) can be considered as deconstructions of a traditional understanding of community. I shall argue that the designs of community that emanate from these plays conceptually highlight an alternative model of community, which – following the philosophies of Jean-Luc Nancy and Giorgio Agamben – I shall call an “inoperative” (Nancy) or “coming” community (Agamben). The inoperative nature of these communities, which the three plays not only reflect upon but also constitute by themselves, is marked by a shift to singularity, by an openness to the Other, by fluid dramatic/theatrical/linguistic structures that challenge traditional normative and exclusionary practices and borders. The deconstructive aesthetics at work in all three plays reveals an inoperative community which denotes a potentiality that is always on the horizon, but never fully actualised. All three plays become epitomes for defining the ethical as well as the aesthetic programme of much British theatre in the twenty-first century: they question (and reject) traditional concepts of community that are based on unity or identity, while they also criticise overreaching, neoliberal individualism and the decline of communal interactions.

THE PROBLEM OF NATIONAL IDENTITY IN MARTIN MCDONAGH’S THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE

The end of the nineteenth century was a turning point for Irish theatre with the establishment of the Irish Literary Theatre as playwrights attempted to write national plays disengaging from the British theatre. This period is known as the Celtic Revival, a period of building a national identity both by political and cultural action, during which the playwrights contributed to the rejuvenation of the old Irish myths and traditions. However, at the end of the twentieth century when Ireland became a multicultural country with multiple identities, and opened to the outer world politically and economically, the Irish theatre, too, started to change its outlook by problematizing the nationalistic elements of Irishness instead of glorifying the national and cultural values. The Irish playwright, Martin McDonagh has also maintained a pluralist approach challenging the traditional and national elements in his plays. Instead of adhering to a national identity, McDonagh believes in cultural pluralism to adapt to the new century. McDonagh’s pluralist approach will be discussed with Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of ‘nomadic identity’ and ‘rhizome’. Thus, this paper aims to analyze how McDonagh problematizes the national identity in The Beauty Queen of Leenane by portraying characters, who are incarcerated by meaningless national values and norms.

RADHA SHYAM NARRATOR'S VISION OF THEATRE AND PARSI THEATRE ART

When the Indian acting tradition and acting style are combined, the Parsi acting method emerges in its unique form. It is during this period of change that many famous actors and actresses emerge. India has had a rich tradition of folk theatre for a long time, but its slavery suppressed this tradition to a great extent and limited the scope of folk theatre. The natural craftsmanship that this folk theatre gave to India, combined with the craftsmanship of the English theatre, was born again in a new form in the middle of the nineteenth century. The presentation process and plot of the Parsi theatre are determined by the political, economic, social and cultural conditions of its era. The actors, playwrights of the Parsi theatre were dependent on those directors and the owners of the company; Radheshyam Kathavachak had a clear vision about acting and character. Acting is unique in itself, all that deficiency can be fulfilled by acting but selection of characters according to character is necessary.

Ian Ward. The Play of Law in Modern British Theatre

Ian Ward’s The Play of Law in Modern British Theatre offers readings of major dramatic works of the last half century, focusing on an array of legal themes and legal histories, from the constitutional crises of the English Civil War to sexual violence and violation in the age of technology.

‘Changed to another form’

Abstract This article demonstrates how dramatic censorship in London's public theatres necessitated a kind of collaborative playwriting with extra-authorial labourers. In the playbook manuscript of Sir John van Olden Barnauelt, the Master of the Revels, Sir George Buc, and the playhouse scribe, Ralph Crane, engaged in a collaborative process that resulted in the most censored extant dramatic document of the early modern English theatres. The censorship is revealing of how political drama was interpreted by its first readers – it was Buc's exegetical interpretation of Barnauelt as anti-monarchical that led to his collaborative revisions and the play's restructuring. This style of censorship also has wider implications. If almost every play was read and revised by the Master of the Revels and perhaps edited by a scribe, then most early modern drama was collaboratively written.

Bilinmeyen Karakterler ve Yitik Bütünlük: Martin Crimp’ın Whole Blue Sky Oyunundaki Postdramatic Yansımalar

This study aims to reveal the postdramatic theatricalities in Martin Crimp's Whole Blue Sky (2005). Martin Crimp has been one of the most prolific, controversial and satirical playwrights since his plays were first staged in British theatres in the late 1980s. While his early plays evoke the absurdist tradition, his later plays emphasize innovative theatrical elements labelled in-yer-face, postdramatic and New Writing. Considering Crimp's wideranging body of work, his distinctive theatrical style is clearly recognizable. Although postdramatic theater is usually associated with theater movements that emerged after the 1990s, it dates back to the theater of Bertold Brecht. For this reason, postdramatic debates are briefly discussed in the Introduction. Whole Blue Sky (2005), which is the field of application of this study, is a short play in the collection of Fewer Emergencies (2005) and Face to the Wall (2005). Moreover, the text in question is completely anonymous and consists of three characters numbered 1, 2 and 3. It is known that character 1 is the only female character in the text. In addition, it is seen that the plot and other traditional principles of theatre evaporate in the play. This study presents an evaluation of Crimp's Whole Blue Sky (2005) in terms of postdramatic theatrical features.

Staging, Playing, Pyrotechnics and Magic: Conventions of Performance in Early English Theatre by Philip Butterworth (review)

Staging, Playing, Pyrotechnics and Magic: Conventions of Performance in Early English Theatre by Philip Butterworth (review)

HOW DO TOP GIRLS TURN INTO HITLERINAS?: A FEMINIST-SOCIALIST ANALYSIS OF CARYL CHURCHILL’S PLAY TOP GIRLS (1982)

The play Top Girls (1982) is certainly one of the most significant, most performed and most studied plays of modern British theatre. Generally, the interpretations of this piece are based on feminist theory and refer to such issues as the conflict between radical and liberal feminism, which is also mentioned and commented on in this paper. However, our focus lies on the interrelations between patriarchy and capitalism, as well as limited options for women within these two oppressive systems. In order to achieve our goal and present the ways in which, in the words of Zillah Eisenstein, the capitalist patriarchy work, apart from her study, we will refer to the works of Linda Gordon, Nancy Chodorow, Heidi Hartmann and Eva Figes. Our purpose is to show that women’s social status and their life standard cannot and should not be identified with the relatively rare success of individual women - such as Marlen who is the protagonist of the play or Margaret Thatcher who is presented as her role model – who had to embrace traditional male and capitalist values of competitiveness and selfishness in order to achieve their suspicious success. In this paper, we wanted to point out that unless women in power show understanding and empathy to other, less privileged, women, their leading positions and their top girls status do not imply female empowerment and cannot be taken as a feminist victory.