Twenty-First Century Drama

What makes twenty-first century drama distinctive? Which events, themes, shifts, and paradigms are marking its stages? Within this landmark collection, original voices from the field of drama provide rich analysis of a selection of the most exciting and remarkable plays and productions of the new millennium. Kaleidoscopic in scope, Twenty-First Century Drama: What Happens Now creates a broad, rigorously critical framework for approaching the drama of this period, including its forms, playwrights, companies, institutions, collaborative projects, and directors. The collection has a deliberately British bent, examining established playwrights - such as Churchill, Brenton, and Hare - alongside a new generation of writers - including Stephens, Prebble, Kirkwood, Bartlett, and Kelly. Simultaneously international in scope, it engages with significant new work from the US, Japan, India, Australia, and the Netherlands, to reflect a twenty-first century context that is fundamentally globalized. The volume's central themes - the financial crisis, austerity, climate change, new forms of human being, migration, class, race and gender, cultural politics and issues of nationhood - are mediated through fresh, cutting-edge perspectives.

Auteur

Siân Adiseshiah is Reader in English Literature and Drama in the School of Humanities at the University of Lincoln, UK. She is a specialist in contemporary theatre and twenty-first century literature, and her previous publications include Twenty-First Century Fiction (co-edited with Rupert Hildyard, Palgrave, 2013), Churchill's Socialism (CSP, 2009) and a variety of book chapters and articles. She is also co-organiser of the biennial international conference series, 'What Happens Now: 21st Century Writing in English'.

Louise LePage is a Teaching Fellow in the Drama and Theatre Department at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK. Her previous publications include articles in journals such as Culture, Language and Representation, Modern Drama and Platform.

Résumé
Within this landmark collection, original voices from the field of drama provide rich analysis of a selection of the most exciting and remarkable plays and productions of the twenty-first century. But what makes the drama of the new millenium so distinctive? Which events, themes, shifts, and paradigms are marking its stages? Kaleidoscopic in scope, Twenty-First Century Drama: What Happens Now creates a broad, rigorously critical framework for approaching the drama of this period, including its forms, playwrights, companies, institutions, collaborative projects, and directors. The collection has a deliberately British bent, examining established playwrights such as Churchill, Brenton, and Hare alongside a new generation of writers including Stephens, Prebble, Kirkwood, Bartlett, and Kelly. Simultaneously international in scope, it engages with significant new work from the US, Japan, India, Australia, and the Netherlands, to reflect a twenty-first century context that is fundamentally globalized. The volume's central themes the financial crisis, austerity, climate change, new forms of human being, migration, class, race and gender, cultural politics and issues of nationhood are mediated through fresh, cutting-edge perspectives.

Contenu

Introduction. What Happens Now; Siân Adiseshiah and Louise LePage.- PART I. Beyond Postmodernism.- 1. Room for Realism?; Elaine Aston.- 2. Beyond belief; Chris Megson.- 3. The Emancipated Shakespeare; Stephen Bottoms.- 4. The Twenty-First Century History Play; Paola Botham.- PART II. Austerity and Class Returns.- 5. Back to the Future; Louise Owen.- 6. Translating Austerity; Mark O'Thomas.- 7. 'Chavs', 'Gyppos' and 'Scum'?; Siân Adiseshiah.- PART III. Borders, Race, Nation.- 8. These Green and Pleasant Lands; Nadine Holdsworth.- 9. 'Sexy Kilts with Attitude'; Trish Reid.- 10. The Politics of Innocence in Contemporary Theatre About Refugees; Emma Cox.- Part IV. New Humans, New Dramaturgies, New Worlds.- 11. The New Genetics, Genocide, and Caryl Churchill; Mary Luckhurst.- 12. Twenty-First Century Casting; Marie Kelly.- 13. 'Thinking Something Makes It So'; Louise LePage.- 14. Anthropo-Scenes; Una Chaudhuri.- Bibliography.