7 Subjectivity in Dennis Kelly’s early drama
-
Basil Chiasson
Abstract
This chapter considers how Dennis Kelly dramatises subjectivity in three of his early plays, Debris (2003), Osama the Hero (2005), and Love and Money (2006). The analysis posits and appreciates a complicated depiction of the relationship between the self and the wider world and examines how individual psychology is shaped by socialisation. In these plays, Kelly’s depiction of subjectivity hinges upon an experimentation with diegetic and mimetic forms of representation which deftly enfolds interior experience and external reality as well as the past and the present. This aesthetic feature of Kelly’s emergent style might be construed as historically relevant to the contemporary neoliberal moment in which the plays were written, and politically relevant as an opportunity for spectators to think critically about the fate of subjectivity under ongoing neoliberal reform. This opportunity for critique reaches its zenith with Love and Money as a play that extends Kelly’s focus on disempowering external affects to include what, for Kelly, is a concern to demonstrate the infrastructural causes of disempowerment and to engage in a more traditional form of dialectial drama. The chapter concludes with suggestions about how Kelly’s representation of subjectivity provides a specific way of regarding his early plays as political.
Abstract
This chapter considers how Dennis Kelly dramatises subjectivity in three of his early plays, Debris (2003), Osama the Hero (2005), and Love and Money (2006). The analysis posits and appreciates a complicated depiction of the relationship between the self and the wider world and examines how individual psychology is shaped by socialisation. In these plays, Kelly’s depiction of subjectivity hinges upon an experimentation with diegetic and mimetic forms of representation which deftly enfolds interior experience and external reality as well as the past and the present. This aesthetic feature of Kelly’s emergent style might be construed as historically relevant to the contemporary neoliberal moment in which the plays were written, and politically relevant as an opportunity for spectators to think critically about the fate of subjectivity under ongoing neoliberal reform. This opportunity for critique reaches its zenith with Love and Money as a play that extends Kelly’s focus on disempowering external affects to include what, for Kelly, is a concern to demonstrate the infrastructural causes of disempowerment and to engage in a more traditional form of dialectial drama. The chapter concludes with suggestions about how Kelly’s representation of subjectivity provides a specific way of regarding his early plays as political.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of illustrations vii
- Notes on contributors viii
- A foreword xii
- Introduction 1
- I Incubation 19
- 1 DNA in the classroom 21
- 2 Suspended in time and place 39
- 3 ‘I’ll teach you a thing or two’ 55
- II Antibodies 71
- 4 ‘Are you sick, yet? / Are you disgusted, yet?’ 73
- 5 Utopia 90
- 6 Beautiful doom 105
- 7 Subjectivity in Dennis Kelly’s early drama 118
- III False positives 135
- 8 ‘I just want it to be your words’ 137
- 9 ‘What is the difference between made up and real?’ 152
- 10 ‘What else isn’t true?’, or, Dennis Kelly’s expressionism 170
- 11 Atopia 184
- IV Variants 201
- 12 ‘Now look, are you going to tell me a story or not?’ 203
- 13 Dennis Kelly’s The Gods Weep at the Royal Shakespeare Company 217
- 14 Performing stories, engaging audiences 233
- Conclusion 251
- Index 264
- Plates 267
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of illustrations vii
- Notes on contributors viii
- A foreword xii
- Introduction 1
- I Incubation 19
- 1 DNA in the classroom 21
- 2 Suspended in time and place 39
- 3 ‘I’ll teach you a thing or two’ 55
- II Antibodies 71
- 4 ‘Are you sick, yet? / Are you disgusted, yet?’ 73
- 5 Utopia 90
- 6 Beautiful doom 105
- 7 Subjectivity in Dennis Kelly’s early drama 118
- III False positives 135
- 8 ‘I just want it to be your words’ 137
- 9 ‘What is the difference between made up and real?’ 152
- 10 ‘What else isn’t true?’, or, Dennis Kelly’s expressionism 170
- 11 Atopia 184
- IV Variants 201
- 12 ‘Now look, are you going to tell me a story or not?’ 203
- 13 Dennis Kelly’s The Gods Weep at the Royal Shakespeare Company 217
- 14 Performing stories, engaging audiences 233
- Conclusion 251
- Index 264
- Plates 267
