British avant-garde theatre / by Claire Warden.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Warden, Claire, 1980-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Experimental theater--Great Britain--History--20th century.

Experimental theater.

English drama--20th century--History and criticism.

English drama.

History.

Great Britain.

Physical Description:

xi, 216 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

Summary:

In the opening decades of the twentieth century, as political governing systems clashed, economic crises devastated nations and the perceived solidity of the modern world collapsed, the dramatists and theatre practitioners of America and continental Europe responded, reflecting these anxieties and directly confronting audiences. Here was a collection of exciting theatrical performances: an ephemeral, vibrant and pioneering avant-garde. But what was happening in Britain?

Analyses (both contemporaneous and modern) generally presuppose that there was little evidence of a 'historical avant-garde' in Britain, particularly in the theatre. This book suggests not only that the long-neglected works of the period are worth reappraising, but that in their structure, staging, character creation, language and use of 'sister arts', they can be read alongside those innovations overseas. Moving across national, generational and social borders, this original study re-imagines these performances, providing creative ways of thinking for researchers and practitioners alike. Here is a new, versatile and open-ended discursive framework: a 'British Avant-Garde Theatre'. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Structure: The Fragmented and the Episodic 22

Performing current affairs: the Living Newspaper 25

Expressionism and Stationendrama 31

Montage and cinematic editing 40

Variety theatre and popular entertainment 46

'Time, gentlemen, please': naturalism and beyond 48

Questioning conclusions 53

2 Staging: Platforms and Constructions 55

Former theatrical traditions and the contemporary political space 57

'Precursors of great promise' 61

Using the platform 63

Construction and projection 66

New lighting innovations 71

The new stage: cages and prisons 75

Limited experiment? 82

3 Language: Disturbing Words 85

Poetry in theatre: a British tradition 86

Poetry, drama and linguistic style 91

Towards a political poetic 97

The poetics of declamation 104

Dialect, accent and vernacular speech 106

Non-communicative language 109

Speaking to an audience 112

4 Character: The Screaming Man and the Talking Feet 115

Ancient modes reinterpreted 116

Isolation: psychoanalytical science and the fragmented mind 120

Modem humanity: the nameless, the dead and the non-human 127

Animals, mannequins and robots: new characters for the modern stage 134

Redeeming the human 140

5 Crossing Genres: Movement and Music 147

Crossing genres: music, dance and the dramatic form 148

Dance, movement and the modern world 152

Dalcroze's eurhythmies to Meyerhold's biomechanics 154

Modem dance: Theatre Workshop's experiments with Laban 158

The Dance of Death: the influence of ballet 162

Rhythms, beats and drumming 168

'Incidental' theatrical music 171

The creation of critical dialogues 174

Conclusion: A British Theatrical Avant-Garde? 176.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780230285781

0230285783

OCLC:

776773173