Post-Postdramatic Practices in Selected British Plays by David Hare, Tim Crouch, debbie tucker green and Caryl Churchill (2004-2012)

Abstract

The dissertation investigates the post-millennial British stage in relation to the antique dichotomy of text and performance. Two quintessential factors have contributed to the reformulation of western theatre in the twentieth century: revolution against realistic theatre and the rise of performance studies in the mid-twentieth century. In this respect, the thesis traces this seminal development in theatre as inter-related to the emergence of Post-Postdramatic theatre by the turn of the twenty-first century in Britain. For this purpose, the study takes Postdramatic theatre whose characteristics had been defined by Hans-Thies Lehmann in 1999 as its point of departure. The Post-Postdramatic bridges the gap between text and performance. The thesis is composed of an introduction that identifies the theoretical framework of the study, four analytic chapters and a conclusion. Post-Postdramatic theatre is concerned with the resurgence of political theatre, new authorship, ethical spectatorship and the redefinition of playwriting. The way these strands are brought into the post-millennial text is the thesis' subject of inquiry. David Hare's Stuff Happens (2004), Tim Crouch's An Oak Tree (2005), debbie tucker green's truth and reconciliation (2011) and Caryl Churchill's Love and Information (2012) are the plays under study that foreground the Post-Postdramatic experience in Britain. In each of the body chapters, one of the strands of Post-Postdramatic theatre is being thoroughly examined from within the theoretical framework that is proposed to explain the path of the research, grounding it firmly in its theoretical constructs. Post-millennial theatre practices are largely seen as reconciliatory in terms of the text and performance dichotomy. The overwhelming re-entry of the playwright during the post-millennial years has shapeshifted theatre together with the relationship between the spectators, on the one hand, and the paper, stage and the production team, on the other. In the conclusion, the results of the study are discussed which are taken as prospects to initiate further research.