Staging the UK / Jen Harvie.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Harvie, Jen.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Theater--Great Britain.

Theater.

Great Britain.

Physical Description:

ix, 246 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Manchester, UK ; New York : Manchester University Press ; New York : Distributed in the USA by Palgrave, 2005.

Summary:

Staging the UK examines some of the most important performance in Britain and Northern Ireland from the mid-1980s into the twenty-first century. Its timely critical approach considers UK theatre in relation to national and supranational identities, concepts such as globalisation and diaspora, and contexts such as New Labour's election, devolution and European unification. It elucidates the relationships between performance, cultural identities and cultural power.

While many studies of British drama concentrate on texts, Staging the UK takes a deliberately de-centred materialist approach. It looks at theatre in a range of institutions and practices, from play texts and musicals to festivals, installations, and site-specific and physical theatre. It examines important events such as the Edinburgh festivals, and significant companies, including the National Theatre of Scotland, Wales's Brith Gof, Tinderbox Theatre Company (Belfast), and, from London, Complicite, Tamasha, DV8 Physical Theatre, Artangel, and Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group.

Staging the UK provides a critically selective pathway through contemporary British and Irish theatre, combining new documentation, timely analysis and clear writing to develop the critical study of both contemporary theatre and the dynamic relationships between cultural practices and identities. It will be an invaluable textbook for courses on British theatre and culture, and indispensable reading for theatre workers, cultural policy makers, audiences, and anyone interested in contemporary British culture.

Contents:

1 Introduction: staging the UK 1

2 Policy paradigms: regional, metropolitan, and national arts and 'creative industries' 16

3 Remembering the nations: site-specific performance, memory, and identities 41

4 The Edinburgh festivals: globalisation and democracy 74

5 The UK and Europe: genealogies and futures of performance 112

6 Bollywood in Britain 156

7 Re-imagining the imperial metropolis 192.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [219]-237) and index.

ISBN:

0719062128

0719062136

OCLC:

57576000

Publisher Number:

9780719062124 (hbk.)

9780719062131 (pbk.)