10 ‘What else isn’t true?’, or, Dennis Kelly’s expressionism
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Mark Robson
Abstract
This chapter reads two plays by Dennis Kelly which opened in London in 2013: The Ritual Slaughter of Gorge Mastromas (first performed in the UK at the Royal Court, 5 September 2013) and Kelly’s ‘version’ of Georg Kaiser’s 1912 expressionist play From Morning to Midnight (in a production at the National Theatre, first performed 19 November 2013). While not claiming that Kelly ‘is’ an expressionist playwright, t read these plays and productions alongside and against each other, suggesting that together they offer a chance to examine the politics of expressionism and its legacies in contemporary British theatre. In clarifying Kelly’s relation to Expressionist theatre, the chapter focuses on a Nietzschean questioning of what is called morality. Nietzsche can be seen as the linking intellectual shadow behind both Kaiser’s expressionism and the moral universe of The Ritual Slaughter. Both plays invite audiences to think through the complex relations of morality, truth, and dramatic form.
Abstract
This chapter reads two plays by Dennis Kelly which opened in London in 2013: The Ritual Slaughter of Gorge Mastromas (first performed in the UK at the Royal Court, 5 September 2013) and Kelly’s ‘version’ of Georg Kaiser’s 1912 expressionist play From Morning to Midnight (in a production at the National Theatre, first performed 19 November 2013). While not claiming that Kelly ‘is’ an expressionist playwright, t read these plays and productions alongside and against each other, suggesting that together they offer a chance to examine the politics of expressionism and its legacies in contemporary British theatre. In clarifying Kelly’s relation to Expressionist theatre, the chapter focuses on a Nietzschean questioning of what is called morality. Nietzsche can be seen as the linking intellectual shadow behind both Kaiser’s expressionism and the moral universe of The Ritual Slaughter. Both plays invite audiences to think through the complex relations of morality, truth, and dramatic form.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- 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
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- 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
