The Theatre of Anxiety

We are living in times when populism, war and climate change are all sources of anxiety caused by overlapping crises. Anxiety is a phenomenon that is not just reflected everywhere around us but is also increasingly manifesting itself in contemporary drama: particularly in the last five to ten years many new British dramas and theatre productions have given a stage to anxiety. Given this central role of anxiety, the aim of this study is to outline the interplay of theatre and anxiety on both a thematic and aesthetic level.

It argues that a strand of contemporary theatre that combines topics of social, ecological, technological and pandemic importance with investigations into the philosophical and aesthetic implications of anxiety has come to prominence in recent years: the theatre of anxiety. This is traced across exemplary readings of a number of contemporary British plays by playwrights such as Caryl Churchill, Zinnie Harris, Alistair McDowall and others. They show that contemporary drama and performance both aesthetically and thematically reflect and comment on global crises and catastrophes through the lens of anxiety as a feeling that 'colours' the perception of and reaction to these social and political conditions.

Auteur
Leila Michelle Vaziri, Universität Konstanz.

Résumé

This is an ambitious and far-reaching thesis which investigates the potentials of the lens of anxiety as a way of interrogating narrative and aesthetic trends in British Theatre in the twenty-first century. Vaziri does not merely draw on, and apply, different conceptions of anxiety, but is confident to compare, contrast and challenge in order to carve and refine her own definitions of the term. This for me is the quality of the work, that while being both robust and rigorous in its argumentation, it is also expansive and ambitious enough to leave the reader further work to do, and will inspire, I'm sure, other scholars to pick up the conclusions and run with them. Liz Tomlin, Professor in Theatre and Performance, University of Glasgow, UK

Through her theoretically sophisticated and analytically adroit interpretive skills, Leila M. Vaziri illuminates the topic of anxiety in contemporary theatre to great effect. The Theatre of Anxiety is a welcome addition to contemporary theatre scholarship, in its expansion of the scope of intellectual engagement available in the field and its generation of a much deeper understanding of anxiety. In its scrutiny of eight contemporary plays, including those by Caryl Churchill, Zinnie Harris, and Thomas Eccleshare, the book offers is a fresh and critical intervention that scrutinises theatre's capacity to reflect and shape our understandings of anxiety, and is likely to inspire new work in this area. Siân Adiseshiah, Professor of Literature, Politics and Performance, Loughborough University, UK

Leila M. Vaziri's The Theatre of Anxiety explores the phenomenology of anxiety as a timely lens on contemporary British theatre. Drawing on a range of theoretical sources from Husserl to Sara Ahmed, the text balances careful rigor and sensitive attention to eight recent works of theatre. In doing so, it serves as a model of engaged scholarship as well as witness to how art participates in the collective navigation of these challenging times. Russell J. Duvernoy, Associate Professor of Philosophy, King's University College of Western University, Canada