“Who’s Going to Mobilise Darkness and Silence?”: The Construction of Dystopian Spaces in Contemporary British Drama

Aleks Sierz; Merle Tönnies

doi:10.1515/jcde-2021-0002

Article

“Who’s Going to Mobilise Darkness and Silence?”: The Construction of Dystopian Spaces in Contemporary British Drama

Aleks Sierz
is a Visiting Researcher at the University of Paderborn and adjunct lecturer at Boston University Study Abroad London Programmes. His books include In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today (2001), The Theatre of Martin Crimp (2006/2013), John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger (2008), Rewriting the Nation: British Theatre Today (2011), and Modern British Playwriting: The 1990s (2012), as well as other publications about contemporary British theatre. He has also co-authored, with Lia Ghilardi, The Time Traveller’s Guide to British Theatre: The First Four Hundred Years (2015). His latest book is Good Nights Out: A History of Popular British Theatre 1940–2015 (2020).
and Merle Tönnies
is Professor of English Literature and British Cultural Studies at the University of Paderborn. Among her key research areas are British drama and theatre from the nineteenth to the 21st centuries as well as questions of space and British identities. She is co-editor of the series anglistik & englischunterricht and reviews-editor-elect of the Journal of Contemporary Drama in English. Further publications include (En-)Gendering a Popular Theatrical Genre: The Roles of Women in Nineteenth-Century British Melodrama (2014) and the co-edited volume Narrative in Drama (Contemporary Drama in English 18, 2011, with Christina Flotmann).

Published/Copyright: May 19, 2021

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From the journal Journal of Contemporary Drama in English Volume 9 Issue 1

Abstract

This article examines the recent explosion of British dystopian plays, analysing their changing characteristics from the 1990 s to the 2010 s. After an initial brief look at precursors, it then focuses on examples of new writing which tackle the idea of dystopia in the absurdist manner typical of the 2000 s. In a third step, the focus is on the dystopian drama of the 2010 s and its more conventionally structured plots, which at the same time increasingly include ironic and parodistic elements. It becomes clear how this comparatively new genre is able to shake off the constraints of traditional dystopian writing and develop recognisable characteristics of its own. Throughout, emphasis is put on the “reality” of the plays’ fictional worlds, on the usage of the stage space, and on how the audience’s relationship with the stage is constructed as a double bind of distance and closeness.

About the authors

Aleks Sierz , FRSA

is a Visiting Researcher at the University of Paderborn and adjunct lecturer at Boston University Study Abroad London Programmes. His books include In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today (2001), The Theatre of Martin Crimp (2006/2013), John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger (2008), Rewriting the Nation: British Theatre Today (2011), and Modern British Playwriting: The 1990s (2012), as well as other publications about contemporary British theatre. He has also co-authored, with Lia Ghilardi, The Time Traveller’s Guide to British Theatre: The First Four Hundred Years (2015). His latest book is Good Nights Out: A History of Popular British Theatre 1940–2015 (2020).

Merle Tönnies

is Professor of English Literature and British Cultural Studies at the University of Paderborn. Among her key research areas are British drama and theatre from the nineteenth to the 21st centuries as well as questions of space and British identities. She is co-editor of the series anglistik & englischunterricht and reviews-editor-elect of the Journal of Contemporary Drama in English. Further publications include (En-)Gendering a Popular Theatrical Genre: The Roles of Women in Nineteenth-Century British Melodrama (2014) and the co-edited volume Narrative in Drama (Contemporary Drama in English 18, 2011, with Christina Flotmann).

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Published Online: 2021-05-19

Published in Print: 2021-05-06

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/jcde-2021-0002

Keywords for this article

dystopia; space; surreal; absurd(ist); anti-naturalism; new writing; irony; parody; metadrama; Caryl Churchill; Far Away; The Skriker; Philip Ridley; Pitchfork Disney; Mercury Fur; Sarah Kane; Gary Owen; The Drowned World; Fraser Grace; The Lifesavers; Alistair McDowall; Pomona; Zinnie Harris; How To Hold Your Breath; Thomas Eccleshare; Pastoral; Rory Mullarkey; The Wolf from the Door; Pity